


Pledis School of Guardians

by Kira_kee



Series: Tales From The Pledis School Of Guardians [1]
Category: Day6, EXO, GOT7, HyunA - Fandom, Jessica - Fandom, Mamamoo, Monsta X, No Mercy - Fandom, SEVENTEEN - Fandom, SHINee, TWICE - Fandom, Triple H - Fandom, asc mc's, f(x)
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Psychiatric Ward AU, depressed Wonwoo, first fanfic, magic school au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 23:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 47,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11368032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_kee/pseuds/Kira_kee
Summary: Mingyu dies one fateful day and is expected to be carried away hand in hand with Death, but a strange being takes him away to Pledis School Of Guardians. A school where all those who had died a heroic death were brought to train and fight to protect the world from unseen evils. It seems ideal, ideal as it can get, until Mingyu discovers he can never see his friends or family again and has to leave them behind, but Mingyu can't let a certain someone go, and his name is Wonwoo.





	1. The Sweet Relief Of Death (not lol)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu dies. And an angel brings him back to life...sorta... he's brought to a school. Lolll I suck at summaries~

(Btw, this chapter sucks, please keep reading to chapter two, lol thanks~)

Dying sucks, Mingyu thought to himself. Ok, he could elaborate a bit more on that. Dying isn't that bad the boy supposed. It's just the feeling of Death creeping upon you that's a bit uncomfortable. Ya, notice how "Death" is capitalized? Ya, no, Death is an actual person. He's not necessarily what you would generally think he looked like. Or she for that matter. Death doesn't really look like anything really; it has no human form you could say. It's just a known presence. Mingyu knew he sounded crazy right now, but it's kinda like a Spirit, but like, colder. Not in an unwelcoming way, it just has an eerie feel to it. When Mingyu died, Death was very kind to him, welcomed him with open arms ready to take him to wherever the others where, reffering to the dead. Why was he currently dying? We'll also get to that later.

The dark haired boy was about to take Death's hand to descend or ascend to wherever they would go, but as he lifted his hand, Mingyu felt something, or maybe someone behind him, radiating massive amounts of light and heat. It was pretty intense, so intense in fact that Death itself seemed rather offended and went about its way and left him with this glowing being behind him.

Mingyu turned around to find a woman standing in front of him. She had long, wavy strawberry blonde hair, pale skin, full pink lips, and was wearing one of those dresses a goddess would typically wear in those Greek mythology pictures. She was stunning. And that was when Mingyu decided that he hated this woman.

The strange woman had a smirk upon her face and looked down upon him (quite literally and figuratively.) She seemed to hold herself in high regard and looked at Mingyu as if he should be grateful that he was even standing in her presence. And maybe he should've, it's not everyday you're in the middle of dying that you're greeted by a beautiful woman that was radiating heat and light towards you. But something about her was off. Something just wasn't right about this woman. No matter how bright she was literally shining, Mingyu could sense something.....dark about her.

It's like having a sixth sense. He was pretty good at judging people. Ok that made him sound like a terrible, judgey person, but it's true. He know a bad person when he saw them, and he's always been good at sensing bad presences and stuff. Could I (the author) elaborate more on this subject, yes, but I'm going to leave y'all with this short paragraph of his weird sixth sense that most people probably already have and this won't be important to the plot of this story, so no, I'm not going to elaborate.

So all in all, there was this strange lady standing in front of him that was nearly blinding him by the second, who he had already decided he hated, and who hadn't spoken a word to him in the past five minutes that he had been judging her and talking to himself. The lady finally broke the odd silence, "Kim Mingyu, I've been waiting for you for a while now." The woman had a delicate voice. It was gentle and sweet, but somehow managed to cut through the air as she demanded for her voice to be heard.

Mingyu thought to himself, "How the Hell does this lady know my name?" "Why has she been waiting for me?" "Why the Hell am I not dead yet??" But all of those questions seemed too cliche to ask and his life has always been a bit weird, so you learn to expect strange things like this to happen. You just don't question situations like this. So instead he asked something very stupid. Something he regretted asking and would regret for many years to come. "Are those eyelashes fake?"

The woman had REALLY long and thick eyelashes, ok! They were so long that they couldn't be real. Suddenly the heat emitting from her intensified and her smirk turned into a snarl as her lip curled up in disgust.

"How DARE YOU question the authenticity of my beauty!" the woman screeched. "You DARE think that someone like yourself could even compare to my beauty and talent?!"

"Ok, ouch. That was pretty harsh. I mean I'm not a peasant, woman," Mingyu though to himself. He had honestly didn't mean any harm or to offend this woman, he thought he had a pretty good question here, but we can't all be winners.

The woman then went on a short tyrant of how he was a lowley being who had no right to judge her and her eyelashes (We could all totally tell they were hella fake though.) He let her continued for about five minutes till she finally fizzled down.

"And to think it was prophesied that you would become the next big savior of the world!" Oh my, that last bit there caught his attention.

"Prophesied? Big Savior? Of the world? Um, ma'am, could you please explain what the Hell is going on?"

The woman curled her lip again and looked down at him as if he was some annoying piece of gum stuck on the bottom her six inch heels. (Yes, that's what she was wearing with her Greek robes or whatever you want to call them.) "Ugh, I'm not even going to bother to explain. I've been doing this for seven hundred years now, sweetie, the principal will explain everything to you when we get to the school."

Before he could ask what she meant by that, she carelessly waved her right hand in a swirling motion and everything around the two started to blur. Colours twirled around them as if they were in the eye of a tornado and the scenery around them began to change. The swirling came to an abrupt stop and the landscaping around Mingyu formed into a forest. "What the Hell?" he whispered, too shocked of what had just occurred to say anything else. He looked around and found we were surrounded by hundreds of pine trees and in front of him stood a mighty impressive gate. It was your standard magical, movie gate. It seemed to be made of steel and came off of brick pillars that towered above him. On the gate there were etchings of what he assumed was a foreign language written all over. He stepped closer for a better look. The gate seemed to shine brightly and it seemed almost as if it was covered by a transparent shield.  
Behind him the pissed off goddess woman cleared her throat and brushed past him to reach the gate. She reached towards the brick pillars where there was a keypad and a speaker. The woman pressed a button and an unfamiliar voice spoke through the speaker, "What's the password?"

You know, you would think with all this magical gizz and whatnot that this school Mingyu presumed he was going to, would have more advanced methods of communication and letting people enter through this gate other than a keypad and speaker. Also, What did he do to deserve this? He first dies and then this crazy, self absorbed lady comes in and takes him BACK to school! He thought death would treat him better, apparently not.

"Oh, shut up you useless bastard, it's Hyuna, just let me in!" the woman yelled, clearly annoyed.

The person in the speaker giggled and then said, "Have you already traumatised the new kid yet on your way here?"

"Shut up, Seokmin! No, I've brought the "savior" you know the one prophesied and whatnot. Pure bullshit I tell you, this kid's going to get beat to death if he doesn't know learn to keep his trap shut," the woman named Hyuna as this Seokmin called her, spouts as she rolls her eyes.

"You say that every time you bring in a newbie, and they're never actually the savior," Seokmin laughs.

"Ah, well we better hope this one isn't the savior, he's too gawky and awkward."

You know what sucks more than having people talk behind your back? Having them talk trash about you right in front of you as if you weren't even there. Mingyu then cleared his throat to make his presence known and received a glare from Hyuna in return.

"Anyways, I'm talk to you later about this, ok," she said as she picked some guck out from underneath her perfectly painted, holo nails.

"Ahhh, yes, I do look forward to that," the man sarcastically says.

The gates then opened less dramatically as he imagined, the gate creaked and slowly opened as if it hadn't been used in years. However, What he found on the other side exceeded his expectations. Behind the gates there was a humongous stone castle that spread out on miles and miles of land. It basically looked like Hogwarts from Harry Potter, but with the lack of snow. He gasped in amazement as he walked through the gates. And then a fairy appeared in the sky out of no where and that was when he fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, sorry this is pretty short guys, just started writing this at 12am in the morning. I'm so sorry Hyuna, I know she's not this prissy what so ever, and she is my QUEEN, but she just fit the description of this light Angel person. There's a lot of random stuff going on, so just hold in there with me XD, please subscribe and comment, I would appreciate that since this is my first fanfic, please stick with me here, I'm much better at writing essays lol XD


	2. Welcome To Death School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu meets his new guild, Seventeen and learns more about the school. Mingyu later finds out about Arena Day, where he might die again, lol. I'm bad at summaries 0.0

Yes, you heard me right. He fainted after seeing a fairy the size of his pinkie with translucent wings appear in front of his nose.

The next thing he knew the world seems to spin around him (not in the cool, teleporting way like earlier) and then boom, pitch black.

Ya, I know what you're probably thinking now, wow, he managed to stay conscious and unfazed when Death greeted him and when the glowing being, HyunA, transported him to a gigantic and beautiful castle,

Slowly Mingyu come back to consciousness as he heard a faint voice in the distance call his name out. His eyes flutter open to find a crowd of faces surrounding him. He yelped out in surprise and flinch away from them. Yes, he yelped, the most embarrassing noise escaped from his lips as a scooted backwards. He could hear other voices snickering among the crowd as he found HyunA in the crowd, rolling her eyes.

"Everyone, back up, give the child some space goddamnit!" he hears a low voice yell in the back. Said man pushed through the crowd towards him. He had light brown hair and looked to be about in his late 20's. The man gave the boy on the ground a friendly and sympathetic smile and offers a hand to him. He nervously took the hand and the man pulled him up to his feet.

"I'm sorry about the crowd, I didn't intend for any of this to happen," the man said to him, brushing the dirt off his shoulders.

"Um, it's fine," Mingyu responded quietly as all eyes were on him, sizing him up. The crowd mainly consisted of boys and girls that seemed to be college aged. All of them wore standard school uniforms.

"Don't mind these guys, they mean no harm. I'm Kyuhyun," the man says offering his hand once again to shake.

"Mingyu," he tells Kyuhyun as he shook his hand. He had a firm grip and rough, calloused hands. Kyuhyun smiles at him and leads him away from the crowd as HyunA shooed the remaining students away.

Kyuhyun put his hand on Mingyu's back as he lead the taller to the entrance of the castle. "I'm sure you're very confused right now and have a lot of questions," the older man said as they continued to walk up the grassy hill. Mingyu only nodded in response, too overwhelmed by recent events to form proper sentences.

"This," Kyuhyun said as the three of them came to a stop in front of the castle, "is Pledis School of Guardians." Kyuhyun motioned towards the brick fortress. "What we do here is a bit complicated you see," he continued, "many people come here around the ages of fifteen to their late thirties after they've died a heroic death. You've met Hyuna here already," he said as his eyes turned to the shining being. "She's actually an angel. She determines here whether or not one deserves to come here. She brings your soul here, so your actual physical body still remains on Earth. However, your spirit can still hurt and bleed here as your regular body would. We bring younglings here to train and fight. You see, everyday there are evil creatures we fight to protect humans whose eyes can not see these dark creatures. It's our duty to protect them. There's also different magical creatures that live here along with supernatural beings who are also students here. Eventually you'll understand this chaotic system in time," the man told Mingyu as they stood in front the massive entrance to the castle. "I'm the principal of this school," he added.

Mingyu nodded slowly, trying to process all of the new information.

"We still have regular classes here like history and math, of course. Eventually you may join a guild and learn to master a weapon , but all of that will come in time." The older man started walking through the entrance and beckoned Mingyu to follow.

Inside the castle the walls were built with grey brick and was lit by small balls of light that floated in the ceiling. The three walked down the hallway and loud voices from the left were growing louder. "This," Kyuhyun pointed towards a enormous room, about three times the size of his school cafeteria, had hundreds of long tables all occupied by thousands of students eating from black trays, "is the dinning hall. Every guild or class has its designated eating times, but we all eat dinner together here. As you can tell, it gets very loud here. We usually put up a sound barrier in the room so other students down the hall won't have to listen to the noise."

Kyuhyun turned around to face Mingyu to find a pale faced boy nervously biting his lower lip. Kyuhyun sighed, "Sorry, I should go a bit slower. I know this is all so new to you and sometimes I forget that."

It took a few moments for Mingyu to respond. "How....how is this all possible? How is this real?" he said so quietly it could barely be heard over the loud noises coming from the dining beside them.

Kyuhyun's face softened as he rest his hand on Mingyu's shoulder. "I know it's hard to take in, but you'll soon come to find this place your home." With that the older man turned around and shouted the name Seungcheol as he beckoned another boy over. A boy with curly brown hair and dark brown eyes came over towards them. He wore a loose fitted white shirt and blue jeans. Mingyu also noticed a silver necklace hanging underneath his shirt that the brunette wore. He was shorter than Mingyu, the majority of people were, but what he lacked with height he made up with muscle. He was very fit and as a sexually confused college kid, Mingyu couldn't help but admire the way his jeans hugged his thighs and the exposed collar bone he was showing.

"Seungcheol, this is our new student, Kim Mingyu," Kyuhyun said mentioning towards him.  
Seungcheol flashed a friendly smile towards him as he looked him up and down. "Another Kim, sir? That's the seventh one this year."

"And Hwasa wonders why it's been so hard for us to find the savior," Hyuna said behind him.

Kyuhyun chuckled at the statement and returned his attention back to the curly haired boy, "I don't mean to interrupt your lunch period, but would you please be able to take Mingyu in and show him around? Just for today?"

Seungcheol smiled brightly and answered, "Of course! I'll have him meet with the rest of my boys."

Kyuhyun sighed in relief and thanked the younger, "Thank you, I'll have his schedule and everything by the end of the week. Tell me what guild he joins so I can have someone drop it off at his dorm."

"Will do," he simply responded and the principal and Angel, who shot him a nasty glare as she left the dining room in a hurry leaving Mingyu and the handsome, curly haired boy alone.

Seungcheol turned to Mingyu and asked, "What'd you do to get one her bad side, huh?"

Mingyu became embarrassed rethinking about what had happened between them and looked down at the floor as he told Seungcheol everything. When he looked up to see his reaction Seungcheol held a smirk on his face, "Wow, you sure got some guts to tell an Angel of beauty that her eyelashes are fake. Especially Hyuna, she can hold grudges for eternity and now she'll probably do anything out of her way to make your life hell. Well, don't worry buddy, she'll forget about that in a few hundred years in no time."

The shorter then took Mingyu by his elbow and led him to a table to the far right. Seungcheol sat at the end of the table and patted the seat next to him for Mingyu to sit in. A group of five other boys were already sitting at the table. "This is part of my guild, Seventeen. Where the other members are, I do not know nor have the energy to care what trouble they've gotten themselves into," Seungcheol sighed. "Everyone, this is Kim Mingyu."

"Aish, another Kim?" a boy in front of him said. He had long, brown hair that reached his shoulders.

"How much you wanna bet that this one's the savior?" another said to the right of him.

A boy who sat across from Seungcheol chuckled, "Hwasa's the most mentally unstable person in this school, there probably isn't even going to be a savior. Plus who said any of us needed saving?" the the short blonde went on to say.

The long haired one beside him smacked him across the head playfully saying, "Aish! Then how do you explain why everyone of her predictions has been right so far, huh?"

The small blonde shrugged, "Coincidence?"

The boy beside Mingyu chimed in saying, "Either way, she's still the hottest girl in school here, regardless if she's a nutcase."

The rest of the boys nodded their heads in agreement except for a quiet boy in the back with brown hair who just shook his head saying, "You're all perverts."

Mingyu sat quietly in his seat as he watched the scene unroll before him. Everyone seemed to get along here and he felt out of place. Not to mention the fact they were talking about something and someone he had no clue about.

Seungcheol seemed to take notice of this and gently slapped Mingyu on the back. "Sorry man, here let me introduce you to these idiots. This is Jeonghan," he said mentioning towards the boy with the long hair. "This devil child is, Jihoon, but we like to call him Woozi just to pissed him off because he's so cute when he's mad."

The small blonde gave Mingyu a cold glare warning him, "If you ever call me that, new kid, I will shrink all of your clothes and break your spleen." Mingyu nodded next nervously as he leaned away from him and straightened his back.Seungcheol rolled his eyes and pinched the short boy's cheeks as Mingyu held his breath waiting for the shorter to rip his hand off. To his surprise, Jihoon only pulled away as he muttered "asshole" underneath his breath.

The boy to the right of Mingyu whispered, "Only Seungcheol can get away with that, the rest of us are not so brave to attempt such things." Mingyu nodded in response.

"Anyways that's Vernon, Jisoo, and Soonyoung, but he rather be called Hoshi," Seungcheol finished. Vernon was the one who sat to the right of him. He had dirty blonde hair and a playful smirk on his face. Hoshi was a short, dark haired boy, and Jisoo was the quiet boy in the back who had a cross necklace hanging around his neck.

"Nice to meet you all," Mingyu said weakly as he looked around to his new companions.

"For the rest of the week you'll join our guild temporarily so you have a place to sleep and stuff. If you choose to join another guild you'll move dorms and will get a new schedule. I'm the leader of this guild, and Jeonghan is my advisor, which basically means he's the mom of the group. We have five other members, which you'll meet later tonight," the leader explained to him.

The boy next to him, Vernon, then said, "Lunch is almost over, after this is seventh period, and you came on a lucky day, today is Arena Day which will happen before dinner, which also means we get to miss eighth and ninth period, and then after all that we'll get you settled in the dorm."

"What's Arena Day?" Mingyu questioned.

"You'll figure it out later," Seungcheol said as he stood up when a loud bell rung, which Mingyu presumed meant they were changing classes. Everyone in the dining room stood up started walking out to go to their next classes. Mingyu stood there probably looking like an idiot until the the boy, Jisoo, put a hand on his shoulder.

"My next class is Foreign Languages, which is basically just English because that and Chinese are the only languages they teach here. You can join me and Jeonghan if you'd like." The boy had light brown hair and a friendly smile, so Mingyu thanked the smaller boy and walked after him and Jeonghan. The three walked down the crowded hallways and up a long way of spiral stairs till they entered a large room painted soft red (if the colour red could even be described as soft.) Jisoo looked back at him and whispered, "You'll eventually get used to excessiveness of the colour red in here."

A woman sitting at what looked like the teacher's desk came up to the three of them. She wore a white blouse tucked into a bright red skirt, wearing red heels and bright red lipstick. "Well what do we have here," the woman said as she looked Mingyu up and down. "New student I suppose?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am. This is Kim Mingyu," Jeonghan said with what looked like a forced smile.

"Aish, like I needed another Kim in my class," the short woman sighed. "Well Mr.Kim, you look as if you may be one to cause trouble here, so I advise you well to keep you mouth shut unless spoken to and to pay attention. Any disruption and I will make your life here a living Hell here, understand young man?"

Mingyu quickly nodded his head. "Use your words," the woman snapped at him.

"Yes ma'am."

The woman then walked away back to her desk and picked up the book the had been previously reading. Jeonghan's smile immediately fell and Jisoo let out a breath he had been holding in. "That's Mrs.Jamie," Jeonghan told him in a quiet voice. "She's the absolute worst. Mr.Woo and Mr.Park are out for the week so we're stuck with her. She usually teaches forth and fifth period. Kevin Woo teaches first and second period and Park Jaehyung teaches seventh and eighth," he went on to explain.

"How ironic she said that she'd make your life a living Hell when this building is literally filled with dead people," Jisoo said thoughtfully.

Jeonghan rolled his eyes and took a seat in the back and motioned for Mingyu to sit in the desk beside him. A boy beside him turned in his direction. "Hey, you're new here. Name's Young K, but my friends call me Brian," he said as he stuck out his hand.

Mingyu shook his hand and smiled as he told the other his name. Young K then went on to introduce Mingyu to his guild, Day6. Sungjin had dark hair and Wonpil had light brown hair and wore a black choker and was extremely friendly and reminded Mingyu of a puppy, while Dowoon was shy and had didn't talk much, and had a soft voice. "The other member of our guild is the teacher Jae, but he's out sick this week."

"Teachers can be part of guilds?" Mingyu asked.

"Yep, most of them are either in the guild Super Junior or Shinhwa. Most of the teachers aren't that much older than us, not that age really matters here," Young K went on the explain. Mingyu gave him a questioning look at the last sentence. Young K chuckled to himself and then explained, "You don't age here, so how old you are doesn't really matter." Mingyu's mouth formed a silent "o" as he nodded his head slowly.

"There's still age limits for like drinking or riding a Pegasus and stuff of course, but most of the teachers don't care, well except Mrs.Jamie," Wonpil snickered. Before Mingyu could question what he meant by "riding a Pegasus", the bell rang, signaling that class had started.

Mingyu spent the next hour listening to Mrs.Jamie explain proper nouns to the class although everyone in the class already knew what they, for they ready had proper nouns in the Korean language. The bell rang throughout the school after an hour as Mrs.Jamie was finishing assigning the class homework. Jisoo, Jeonghan, and Mingyu rushed out of the class in a hurry, determined to get out of the class and as far away from the Foreign language teacher as fast as possible. On the way down the spiral stairs they met Seungcheol hanging out with Jihoon and two other boys Mingyu did not recognize.

"Ah, Mingyu, this is Jun and Minghao," Seungcheol said gesturing towards the two. Jun was a tall,handsome boy with dark, midnight blue hair and was holding hands with the other, Minghao, who had blonde hair and a shy smile. Minghao saw Mingyu looking at their entwined hands and proceeded to pull away. Jun gave him a confused look till Minghao whispered something along the lines, "Not in public," to him. Mingyu immediately looked down at the floor as he began feeling guilty about separating the two.

"You came in on a good day, my friend," Jun said as he wrapped his arm around Mingyu leading him down the stairs.  
Mingyu gave him a questioning look, but it was Minghao who explained, "It's Arena Day. Everyone loves Arena Day, well except the smarties like Jihoon or Hoshi." Minghao spoke with a noticeable accent that Mingyu found cute.  
But even after what Minghao had said, Mingyu still didn't understand a thing, "What actually is Arena Day? Vernon mentioned it earlier, but no one explained it to me."

"Basically it's a battle to the death, which ever guild is last standing wins. We have it every Sunday. Usually it takes a few hours to finish off everyone since there's so many of us and there's millions of acres of land we're allowed to camp in and stuff," Hoshi told Mingyu as if he was simply telling him that they were having tacos for dinner.  
"Great, first I die in the middle of the day before I can even have lunch, and now I'm about to die again. Great, just splendid," Mingyu sarcastically said.

"Hah, don't worry, You're not going to die. We enchant the weapons so that they can injure you a bit, but it won't cause too much damage. We have precautions," Minghao laughed.

"Somehow that doesn't calm the voice inside my head that's telling me I'm going to absolutely die in a few minutes. Then again, that voice is also telling me I should be dead right now," Mingyu said as they finally made it out through the main entrance and onto the grassy field.

The group traveled towards the tallest oak tree where the rest of the guild, Seventeen, was. All of them appeared to be carrying various kinds of weapons among them. "Get used to it kid, that voice doesn't go away until after a good six months," he hears Seungcheol say as he starts jogging towards the rest of the members. Once they all gathered around the enormous tree, Seungcheol loudly cleared his voice and the rest of them soon became quiet as they looked to their leader.

"Is everyone here?" Seungcheol asked as he looked around at the group. Everyone nodded their heads. "Good. Everyone, this is Kim Mingyu, he's temporarily joining the guild for the week until he decides to join another or become a permanent member." Seungcheol motioned towards the tallest boy in the group. "We have fifteen minutes before the round starts. Plan is the same as always, we stick together, don't get too involved in any major fights. Let the rest pick out the weak and the best. Do not engage at all with Monsta X, do you hear me, Chan?" A smaller boy in the back nodded his head as he he kept his head down. "That's all guys, maybe this time we'll win with Wonho and Jooheon out this time," Seungcheol said finishing up his speech.

The group soon returned to their previous chatter. A group of three boys approached Mingyu, "Hey, we sorta already met I guess. My name's Seokmin, I was the guy on the speaker earlier today. This is Chan and Seungkwan," the tallest boy of the three said to him as he shook hands with Mingyu.

"Um, hi. Nice to meet you," Mingyu said.

tThe boy named Chan stepped closer towards him as he stared up at him, analysing every small detail on his face. After a moment the young boy asked, "Aren't you the kid who fainted when they saw a fairy?"

Mingyu's face started to get red as he began to blush, "Ah, yes. Twas me indeed," Mingyu said as he rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.

The kid named Chan began to laugh hysterically until Seokmin smacked him across the head and told him to be quiet. "It's ok, we all know here that it's a lot to take in on you first day here. And trust me the fairies are harmless," Seokmin says, straying to comfort Mingyu.

"Also, here's a sword. Later this week we'll find your own personal weapon you'll learn to specialize in, but for now, you'll have to use this," Seokmin told him as he handed him a sword. Mingyu thanked him as he took the sword. It felt very heavy in his hand. The sword was shiny and had a golden hilt, a classic Disney Prince kind of sword. Although the sword was beautiful in design, it felt uncomfortable and too unfamiliar in his hand for him. He swung the sword around a few times in the air before putting it back into it's sheath. Then Seokmin proceeded to hand him a rose quartz coloured bracelet. "Wear it on your wrist and when the round starts you'll start to glow the colour so everyone knows what guild your from," he explained. Mingyu nodded and slipped the bracelet on.

"Uh, by the way, I wanted to ask who Monsta X is? Seungcheol mentioned it his speech thingy," Mingyu asked hesitantly, not wanting to seem like he was clueless about everything, even though he really was.

"Monsta X are the reigning champion of the Arena battles. They've been un-defeatable for the past couple of years. They've always dominated because they have Shownu, Jooheon, and Wonho in their guild. Chan learned that the hard way last time," Seokmin said as he cuffed the shorter on the ear.

"Nobody messes with them, but every guild dreams of taking them down. But we might have a chance at winning today now that Wonho and Jooheon have been suspended this week for letting one of the unicorns loose in the school" Chan added.

"Ahh, ok. Don't mess Monsta X, got it," Mingyu said as he gave the two an ok symbol with his hands.  
Mingyu decided to observe his surroundings and look around. The oak tree they were standing under stood almost as a boundary of where the woods started. The majority of the other guilds stood in the field where the grass and wheat has been cut short. Far off to his right there was a large hill that a guild was standing upon that he assumed was Monsta X, because who else would get to claim the advantage of the hill. Beyond the hill Jisoo had told him there was a large lake where the mermaids lived along with the water dragons. Yes mermaids and water dragons, this is what his life had come to.

Then a loud gong was heard from where the entrance of the castle was and that was when all Hell broke loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyo! We're back for chapter two, I know chapter one was like utter trash, so please stick with me, for this is my first fanfic and we got a lot of info to cover. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and get ready for Arena Day!! Don't worry guys, we'll get to Wonwoo's part soon~ thank you guys for a reading and please comment down below if you enjoy this series, it really helps with motivation and stuff :3


	3. Arena Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu competes in his first Arena game as he tries to survive with his new guild. Vernon gets triggered and Jihoon is a lil bitch sometimes

Have you ever been to the mall on a Black Friday? That was the closest thing Mingyu could compare the chaos that surrounded him to. Once the gong had been heard, students began to glow different colours as they rushed towards each other. A hundred feet away from him he saw a boy being impaled in the back with a throwing knife that came from who knows where. 

Everyone was at each other's throats as they fought with various weapons. To his far right, a girl was battling a boy with a fan for godsake. It was so loud, steel weapons clanging against each other, battle cries and screams echoed throughout the field. It truly was a bloodbath.  


Mingyu only had a few seconds to observe the battle field and what was happening before he felt a hand pulling him into the woods. He looked around as he ran forward and saw it was Jun who was pulling him past the tree line, running after the rest of the Seventeen members. "Don't just stand there like a chicken waiting to be slaughtered," Jun said to him as they ran.  


"Sorry....thanks man," Mingyu panted out.  


There were visible walking trails that they had come across, but Seungcheol made them stay clear of them. They ran through the plants and scattered tree branches that had fallen to the ground.  


They ran deeper and deeper into the woods for what felt was far too long. The sun was beating above him. Sweat began to gather on his forehead and run down his back, soaking his shirt. Unsettled dust was sticking to him as well and he could feel an itch down his back, but he ignored it. Sometime along the way, Jun had let go of his hand and had sprinted forward to the front of the pack, accelerating at a speed that Mingyu could not believe was possible. Then again, what did Mingyu expect at this point.  


The group took a hard left when they could hear footsteps and loud voices to the right of them that were following them. And at the worst possible time, Mingyu fell flat on his face as his jeans had been caught on a branch coming off of a fallen tree he had jumped over. Because that's what you do when there's a group of seven people running after you with pointy weapons. Convenient, huh.  


Mingyu continued to struggle getting up and untangling his jeans from the branch when a fireball crashed into the branch and burned it and some of his pants away. Mingyu's head whipped around to find Jihoon standing a few feet ahead of him with his hand up, pointing towards him. "You nearly burned off many hands!" Mingyu yelped in surprise.  


The blonde then grabbed him by the arm as Mingyu scrambled to get up, "Say that again when I'm not saving your goddamn ass," the smaller spat, practically almost dragging Mingyu to his feet.  


The two sprinted after the rest of their guild members and turned a corner into a cave where they all hid in the darkness. Mingyu shuffled in quietly after everyone, trying to be as quiet as possible so nothing would echo inside the cave. They stayed there till the group that had been previously following them had passed them. The guild let out a sigh in relief when they heard the other guild pass.  


Mingyu looked to the right of him where Jihoon was squatting, "Thanks for saving me back there," he managed to say before Jihoon waved him off as he rolled his eyes muttering, "Fucking newbies."  


Their leader motioned them all to gather around him, "That was a close one guys. From now on we're splitting up into groups of three, we're too big of a target if it's all eleven-twelve of us just standing in the middle of the woods. Vernon and Mingyu, you're with me. Jihoon, you're leading a group with Seokmin, Jisoo, Jeonghan, and Seungkwan. Hoshi, you're leading with Minghao, Jun, and Chan, you got it?"  


Everyone nodded in response. "Good, my group is heading North, Jihoon, you're West and Hoshi's East."  


Quickly, people split up into their groups and left the cave to head in their directions. Vernon put his hand on Mingyu's back as he lead him out of the cave after Seungcheol. They continued to walk through the forest scanning their setting, keeping an eye out for any other guilds.  


After a few more minutes of painful silence, Mingyu asked Vernon, "What kind of name is Vernon?" Mingyu immediately realized how harsh that sounded as he clamped a hand over his mouth in surprise of what he had just said. "Oh my Lord, that came out so wrong!"  


Vernon just laughed and waved him off saying, "Its fine, man. Vernon's my English name, I used to live in the States before my family and I moved to Seoul. My Korean name is Hansol. You can call me whatever though."  


"Oh, that's pretty cool," Mingyu responded.  


"Jisoo also has an English name too, Joshua. And Seokmin also likes to be called DK, don't ask me why, that's just his thing," Vernon continued as he stared at the ground, watching where he was going. "We call Jihoon, Woozi sometimes because one time he got so drunk that he went skinny dipping with the mermaids in the lake at night and was riding the water dragons past curfew. He had to clean all the restrooms in the school for a week afterwards," he snickered.  


Mingyu laughed at that, imagining the tiny boy riding an enormous creature like that, naked nonetheless. "Wouldn't that like really hurt though, with the scales and all," Mingyu asked.  


"Haha, ya, in fact he had to spend the rest of the month healing his dick and ass that he had scraped against the scales. Seungcheol was fucking pissed that month because of it!"  


Seungcheol whipped his head around to face the two, "You try not getting laid for four fucking weeks!"  


Vernon and Mingyu burst into a fit of laughter. Mingyu was holding his aching stomach from laughing too hard when Seungcheol heard a rustle in the trees above them. "Shut up, you idiots!" He whispered.  


Vernon and Mingyu covered their mouths as they continued to laugh and heave. Seungcheol made some gestures towards them that were along the lines of, "Shut the fuck up or I'll kill you two motherfuckers."  


The two boys stopped laughing as they heard another rustle above them. The three of them stood silently, reaching for their weapons as they looked up at the tree tops. It was so quiet that all that could be heard was their heavy breathing the three were trying to control and the birds and insect noises.  


Suddenly Mingyu saw a figure drop from the sky next to the right of him. He turned around as another person had appeared to the left of him near Vernon and Seungcheol.  


The boy in front of him had blonde hair and a black bomber jacket over a plain white t-shirt and jeans. He held a crossbow that was now pointed in his face. Mingyu slightly moved his head, too afraid to make any sudden movements, to take a look behind him. The other boy who had dropped from the trees had red hair and carried a sword with a light blue hilt. Both of the boys were glowing a light green. Seungcheol had pulled out his sword, similar to the boy's with the red hair, and Vernon held up his axe. Wow, an axe....why the Hell not?  


"Nice to see you again, Jaebum," Seungcheol said as he readjusted his grip on his sword. Mingyu thought he heard something like a hint of fondness in the leader's voice, like the two were old enemies, well maybe not enemies, frienemies maybe?  


"Heyy, buddy! I had fun playing basketball with you in gym yesterday! What was the score again? Oh my bad, I believe it was 21-19, wasn't it Youngjae?" the red head said, not taking his eyes off the other.  


"I do believe it was," the blonde smirked as he stepped from side to side, but keeping his bow pointed straight between Mingyu's eyes.  


"Huh, well it's three against two now. So how do you like your chances?" Vernon said to the left of him.  


"Pretty good, considering this scrawny newbie barely counts as a person," the boy named Jaebum said as he pointed his sword towards Mingyu.  


"Oh, you are so going down," Seungcheol hisses with a smile. Mingyu could barely make out what Seungcheol said before Seungcheol swung his sword toward Jaebeum. Vernon had quickly knocked Youngjae's bow away from Mingyu before he swung his axe at the blonde's hip. The boy quickly dodged the blow before shorting an arrow at Vernon. He barely missed Vernon as the arrow brushed against his side, making a shallow cut. Vernon hissed in pain as he clutched his side and backed up.  


Throughout the fires and swings the two made against each other, Mingyu stood over to the side, watching in shock and stood there like an idiot until Jaebum hit his hilt against his head, trying to knock the other out.  


Mingyu scrambled backwards, reaching up to the side of his head. What had happened to Seungcheol, he did not know, but now he had to deal with Jaebum who was clearly more skilled than he, alone. Jaebum barely gave him any time to recover as he rushed towards him raising his sword in the air. Mingyu blocked the swing to his side and made a jab at the other, or at least tried to before stumbling a bit in the process. Jaebum smirked in amusement as took a chance when Mingyu was open and his sword ran into Mingyu's shoulder cutting in deep. Mingyu cried out in pain as he dropped his sword and clutched his shoulder. His shoulder felt as if it was one fire as warm blood seeped through his shirt and onto his hand. Jaebum sprinted towards him and kicked him on the side, causing Mingyu to fall onto the ground. Jaebum stood above him, smirking in triumph as Mingyu laid on the ground, propping himself up with his elbow.  


"Not too shabby for your first time, newbie. Better luck next time," the boy above him said, tilting his head sideways a bit, before he drove his sword into Mingyu's stomach as Mingyu shut his eyes, not able to watch what would happen. Mingyu had expected to feel waves of unbearable pain, to feel the sword rip through his flesh and blurry deep within his body, but as he opened his eyes and looked down at his stomach, he saw the sword go through him almost as he was a ghost. He laid there for a few more seconds as he tried to comprehend how there was a sword in his stomach, yet he felt no pain. Then he looked up at the boy standing above him and darkness emerged on the sides of his vision before he fainted. Again.  
  
While Mingyu had fainted, he dreamt of a cheese block telling him to go fuck himself when Mingyu had tried to eat it and of an eagle that had swooped down and took the cheese block away as it wailed in sheer horror while being carried away. "Ya, I bet you wished you had been nice to me earlier, huh," Mingyu thought to himself.  


Mingyu then woke up with a jolt as he body lurched forward. He heard a voice beside him say, "Woah there buddy, take it easy," as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. He looked to the left of him and saw the boy who had just previously stab him crouching beside him with a look of concern, yet amused with the boy who sat before him. Mingyu looked around and saw Seungcheol, Youngjae, and Vernon with an arrow sticking out of his arm and chest, standing around him.  


"What happened?" Mingyu asked in confusion.  


Seungcheol, who was leaning against a tree answered him, "Jaebum stabbed you and you fainted. You were only out for five minutes though. You kept mumbling something about a cheese block and about how mean it was being or something."  


Mingyu widened his eyes and soon turned red in embarrassment. He had fainted twice in one day. He was earning a reputation here real fast, and not one he was proud of. "Oh... great."  


"Why am I not dead, again?" He asked, still confused to why there was not wound in his stomach.  


"The weapons are enchanted to make sure you don't die. You can be cut and harmed by one, but never seriously injured," Youngjae answered as he gestured towards Vernon who still had arrows sticking out of him.  


Mingyu looked beside him towards Jaebum and asked, "Why are you guys still here?"  


Jaebum told him, "Youngjae and I beat Seungcheol and Vernon after you fainted, but I couldn't just leave you here like this. So we stayed for a bit to make sure you're ok."  


Mingyu hadn't noticed until know that Seungcheol and Vernon had stopped glowing a rose quartz colour. "Oh, well thanks..." Mingyu said awkwardly as he looked down at the ground, still embarrassed that he had fainted again.  


"No problem man, come on Youngjae, we still got a battle to win," Jaebum said as he got up and ran off into the woods with the blonde.  


Seungcheol eyes followed after them and then shouted after them, "I'll get you next time!"  
The curly, browned hair boy then took Mingyu's hand and pulled him up to his feet. The leader had significant amounts of cuts on his arms and through his white shirt. He also seemed to have a bruise forming on his left cheek.  


To his left, Vernon was busy trying to pull out the arrows buried in his body. He pulled the one out of his chest and threw it to the floor. There was no visible wound or blood on the boy, just like there was no stab wound in Mingyu's stomach. But as he went to pull out the arrow in his arm, his face twisted in pain as he slowly pulled it out. He then ripped part of his shirt off and tied it around the wound to stop the bleeding.  


Seungcheol then said to the two of them, "Well, it's time we head back for the school. I don't think the rest of the guilds made it either. We'll get your arm fixed up there, Vernon, you'll probably need stiches though."  


Vernon nodded his head silently, not trusting his voice to let out and noises or whimpers of pain.  
The group of three traveled through the woods and walked for about half an hour till they finally reached the main entrance of the school castle. There awaited the rest of their guild members, who Mingyu supposed had also been defeated. There were also plenty of other guilds and their members waiting at the entrance too. To the side there was a line on people at a booth that were passing out food and dinner to the students.  


The three of them joined the rest of their guild. Seokmin and Chan ran up to him and Vernon asking what had happened. Seungcheol filled them in on the recent events before ordering Jisoo to take Vernon to the hospital wing to get his arm treatment.  


"You went up against Jaebum!?!" Chan shouted as his eyes widened and looked up towards Mingyu as if he was a legendary hero.  


Mingyu shrugged weakly as he told the younger, "It wasn't much of a fight, it barely lasted a minute before he stabbed me and I fainted for the second time today."  


Jihoon, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation scoffed when he heard this, "You fainted again? What are you, a fainting goat?"  


Seokmin smacked Jihoon upon the forehead telling him to be quiet and to stop teasing the new kid. Jihoon cursed under his breath as he pressed his hand up to his forehead before he walked away towards Jeonghan, calling Mingyu "goatface" before leaving. Seokmin turned back towards Mingyu saying, "Sorry, he can be a little...rude sometimes, but eventually he'll warm up to you."  


Mingyu then asked him, "What's so amazing about Jaebum though, Chan seemed pretty impressed when Seungcheol told him we had fought."  


"Jaebum is the leader of Got7. They're probably the third best guild in the Arena, after Monsta X and CLC. Seungcheol and Jaebum also have this friendly rival going on between them when it comes to events like this and gym games," Seokmin explained.  


"Ahhh, ok then."  


Seokmin then took a closer look at Mingyu's shoulder and told him to go to the hospital to get it checked out to prevent an infections. He then beckoned Chan over again and told him to take Mingyu to the Hospital wing. "After you have that checked out you can come back out and grab something to eat," Seokmin told him.  


Mingyu nodded, show in that he understood and followed Chan through the main entrance to the school.  


Chan lead Mingyu through the building to the west wing of the castle where the hospital was. The younger explained how his team had been defeated some other members of Got7 in thorough detail as they made their way through the building. When they reached the hospital, a woman led him to a room and had him sit on a chair as another woman came in and cleaned and inspected the wound. "The wound isn't too deep to be that serious, but it will need some stiches. You can either get the stiches or pay 60 pin to heal it now," the woman said to the two of them.  


Mingyu looked over towards Chan in confusion as the younger let out a deep sigh, "Ahh, Seungcheol won't like this one bit, but we'll pay the 60 pin to have it healed."  


The woman gave him a smile and said, "Ok, the healer will be here in a few moments now.," and then she left the room.  


"What's a pin? And what do they mean by healing me, isn't that what they're doing when they stich me up?" Mingyu asked Chan.  


"What they do here is they have a healer who can immediately heal wounds in an instant. But all that cost money. Pins are the currency that you earn during Arena matches or other events. Teachers can also award students with Pins and during sports too. You can also spend the money on other things for the guild like upgrading weapons. We're sort of a new guild so we don't have that many right now, but I know Seungcheol doesn't want to wait that long with injuries that would require a long healing process, but he kinda expected this, so he gave me some of the guild's pins," the younger explained as he took out a bag of silver coins from his pocket. "Of course serious injuries and life threatening wounds will be taken care of free of charge, but the principal here believes we should pay the price of our actions," he added.  


Just as Chan finished explaining, another woman walked in with brown, wavy hair. "Hello, my name is Moonbyul, I'll be healing you today." The woman stuck out her hand to Mingyu.  
Mingyu gave her a nervous smile as he shook her hand. "I see today was not such a lucky day for Seventeen, huh?" The woman asked as she inspected Mingyu's shoulder.  


"Haha, I guess you saw Hansol too?" Chan laughed.  


"Ahh, it took sometime to completely heal the arrow wound, but we got through it," the woman smiled. Then she turned to face Mingyu again and looked him in the eye, "This won't hurt a bit, you'll feel a little tingly feeling which is perfectly normal, but it won't hurt, this will scar over though."  


Mingyu nodded as he nervously gulped. Moonbyul hovered her hand over the wound and her hands began to glow a white light. His shoulder soon began too feel a bit warm and that tingly feeling Moonbyul described began to kick in. Mingyu looked over at his shoulder and watched as the skin and wound began to heal. In a few minutes the wound was completely healed, but left a wide scar in its place, "There we go! Nothing more to it!" Moonbyul exclaimed as she got up from her seat.  


Mingyu and Chan thanked her before Chan handed over a hand full of pins over to her. The two left the hospital and were about to leave to return outside, but soon realized that it had turned dark and the round was over, so the two headed to the dorms. They walked through the school until they came to a hallway with rows of doors. They were all numbered. The two walked down the hallway and stopped at door 526.  


"Ok, don't judge how messy we are please, usually Kihyun from Monsta X swings by sometimes and cleans up the dorm for us, but there's eleven dudes living in one small dorm, so just give us a chance," Chan warned Mingyu.  


Mingyu laughed and reassured the boy saying, "It's alright, I understand."  


Chan opened the door slowly. The door cracked open till he could finally see inside it. The two stepped inside into what seemed like the kitchen. "This is the kitchen, the room ahead of us is the living room with a tv we could barely afford, through the door to the right of that is where we sleep, we have seven bunk beds in there and there's the bathroom that's connected to that room where we all share one bathroom. Showers will be cold in the morning because you'll be going last, we all have our own hygiene stuff that we keep in our own bags underneath the sink. Rules are if you finish the last roll of toilet paper, you can't just leave it like that, and no leaving piss on the seat or Jisoo or Kihyun will murder you, got it?"  


Mingyu nodded his head slowly, trying to remember the new information. "Here, have an Apple at least," Chan said, handing him a shiny green apple he got out from the fridge, along with a red one he kept in his hand. "I believe the rest of the guys are already in their bunks right now," Chan said as he lead the way towards their room.  


Chan pushed open the door to their bedroom. There were three bunk beds to the right of the room and four bunk beds to the left. Jihoon and Seungcheol sat in the top bunk in the corner to the right together, Jihoon pressing a wet cloth to the taller's bruise on his face. Hoshi, Hansol, and Seungkwan sat together on the third bottom bunk to the right. Minghao and Jun seemed to be cuddling on the second top bunk to the left and Seokmin was laying on the third bunk to the left. And Jisoo and Jeonghan were sitting on the second bottom bunk to the right. Jihoon was the first one to notice the two walk into the room saying, "Hey, goatface, about time you got here."  
The others turned around to look at him as Mingyu blushed a deep red from being called the new nickname. "Goatface?" Jeonghan questioned.  


"Ya, he fainted again today during the Arena round. He's like a fainting goat. Goatface," Jihoon explained.  


Mingyu sighed in exasperation as he flopped down on the nearest bunk to the left of him that seemed unoccupied. "What did I do to deserve this?" Mingyu asked out loud.  


"Hey, don't feel too bad dude, it's been a stressful day, we all can relate," Seokmin told him, trying to comfort the new student.  


"Ya, plus if you ever want to get Jihoonie back, just remind him of the time he rode a water dragon naked," the red head, Seungkwan, told him as he winked. The small blonde growled at the other before returning to his task of comforting Seungcheol.  


"Hey, Jun, here!" Chan shouted as he tossed a red apple he was holding earlier.  


"Oooh, apples!! Vernon gets triggered," Minghao snickered.  


Mingyu looked to Hansol hoping he'd explain. Instead it was Hoshi who elaborated, "Hansol dropped a cigar once and it caught an Apple tree on fire in his neighborhood which eventually spread to the house next to it and he died saving the children inside."  


Mingyu's eyes widened in surprise, despite how tired he really felt at the moment. "Now he can't even look at an apple the same again."  


Mingyu nodded his head before turning it back around to see Jun digging his canine teeth into the Apple as it's colour was sucked from the Apple leaving the Apple a dull, grey colour. "Um, what are you doing to that apple??" Mingyu questioned.  


"Remember how Kyuhyun told you other magical creatures attend school here? Well Jun's a vampire, but he feeds off the colour red rather than blood to sustain his appetite," Seungcheol explained.  


"Minghao's also a shapeshifter, Hoshi is part fairy, Chan is part elf, Jisoo is an angel because he's about as freakin close to what people call Jesus, and Seungcheol is a werewolf," Seokmin added.  


"Ahhh, nice..." Mingyu said as his hands formed an "ok" symbol.  


"Anyways, we all should be going to sleep now, guys, we still have school tomorrow. Oh, and Mingyu, here's your schedule," Seungcheol announced as he handed Mingyu a slip of paper. The boys sighed in response and slowly made their way back to their bunks, all except Minghao and Jun who stayed cuddling in the top bunk. Mingyu set the piece of paper to the side as he got himself comfortable underneath the covers on the forth bottom bunk to the left where the top bunk remained unoccupied. Hansol flicked the lights off before returning to his top bunk.  


"Goodnight, bitches," Jeonghan said before they all went to sleep. Mingyu stayed up a bit longer though as his mind was swimming through thoughts of the previous events throughout the day and his brain trying to comprehend what had really happened. But soon exhaustion took over his body and Mingyu's eyelids fell heavy and he fell into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! Sorry this chapters took longer, I've been super busy this past week. And yes, at the very end I've decided to called Vernon, Hansol now don't question it. And yes, I did take the eating the colour red vampire thing from Adventure Time, lol. Also, by the way, the guild colours are based off of the group's light stick colours. I hope this chapters didn't seem too rushed and that I crammed too much info into it... anyways, I hope y'all enjoyed and brownie points to anyone who understands the door number :3)) also, don't worry, Wonwoo's part will probably be chapters five, so hang in there!! :3
> 
> Here's the bunk beds in case you were confused:  
> Bunks:  
> Jihoon(top)/Sooyoung(bottom) Seungcheol(top)/Jeonghan(b)  
> Jun/Minghao. Seungkwan/Jisoo  
> Chan/Seokmin. Vernon/na  
> na/Mingyu


	4. First Day Of School and Triggering Flashbacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu goes through his first day of school at Pledis School Of Guardians. WARNING: Very heavy continent in this chapter describing a school shooting. Please do not read flashback if this may be triggering for you.

Mingyu woke to the sound of yelling voices and the smell of smoke and burning. Despite the fact there may be a fire that could possibly burn him and the building down, Mingyu was just not having it and groaned as he ducked under his covers for a few moments before the yelling increased and the fire alarm started to go off. Slowly he opened his eyes and peeked out of the covers and saw Hansol sitting on the bed below his picking at his finger nails, ignoring the loud shouting and chaos coming from outside the bedroom.

As if Hansol could feel Mingyu staring at him, the blonde haired boy looked up and simply said to him, "Chan was in charge of cooking breakfast today. I'm sure you can figure out the rest."

Mingyu opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it as he thought to himself, "Ya, sure, why not?" He then slowly got out of bed and shut the door to the living room so the smoke wouldn't enter and picked up the piece of paper that held his schedule. 

"All the first years will be taking the same types of classes, but we had it arranged where you'll at least have a class with one of the guild members each period, so you, me, Seungkwan, Chan, and Seokmin will have first period together," Hansol told him. 

"That's good, I was worried about getting along with other people and stuff...." Mingyu sighed in relief. 

Vernon looked as if he was about to say something, but was cut off by a loud clanging noise that Mingyu assumed had come from the kitchen. Hansol sighed as he got up from the bed, "Aish, I better go check on those idiots before they burn the building down, you can read over your schedule and get dressed while I'll try to save breakfast. Also, the school uniforms are optional. Some people wear it just because it reminds them of their old life, but I'm not one to reminisce the past," Hansol shrugged.

Hansol then left and shut the door after him, leaving Mingyu alone. Mingyu looked down at his schedule that read:  
1\. Potions and Spells  
2\. Medicine and Herbs  
3\. History  
4\. Art, Music, Tech, or Drama  
5\. Creatures and Beasts  
6\. Lunch  
7\. Foreign Languages  
8\. Defense/fighting  
9\. Free period

Mingyu didn't know where any of the classes were located, but he supposed he could just follow Hansol and the other first years. Mingyu quickly got changed into the clothes that had been set on his bed. The white t-shirt and black sweat shirt fit well, but the jeans were a bit too short, so he rolled them up a little. Mingyu then stuffed his schedule into his back pocket and braced himself of what he may discover past the door as he pushed it open. 

Mingyu walked out of the room and into the living room where he found the guild sprawled out on the floor and couch eating ramen from paper bowls. Mingyu turned towards the kitchen where there were dozens of pots and pans and burned food that had been scraped into the trash can. Jeonghan stepped out from the kitchen with a rather large pot (the only one in the kitchen that did not reek of smoke) with some ramen left still inside. The long haired boy shoved the pot into his hand, too exhausted to say anything as he stuck two chopsticks in and left to go collapse onto one of the bunk beds.  
Mingyu sat on the floor next to Seokmin and Soonyoung and they all silently ate their breakfast as they were all too exhausted and shocked from the previous chaos in the kitchen.

Once they all had eaten and finished cleaning up the rest of the kitchen Seungcheol spoke saying, "Remind me to never put Chan in charge of breakfast ever again," to no one in particular. 

Jisoo checked at the watch on his wrist and shouted out, "Oh my Lord, it's 6:45! Classes start in fifteen minutes!" 

This seemed to break the rest of the guild out of their daze as they all started to panic and ran out of the dorm to get to their classes. Hansol pulled Mingyu out of the door with Seokmin, Chan, and Seungkwan. The five of them ran down the hallway and down two flights of stairs. "Ughhh, we're going to be so late for class!" Seungkwan whined as they continued to run down the hallway. 

"No, we are not! Not to frickin day guys!" Hansol shouted back as he sprinted faster to the room at the end of the hallway. The five if them burst through the door, into the classroom right before the bell rung throughout the school, signaling that class had begun. Mingyu had his hands resting on his knees and he bent over to catch his breath. He looked up to find the whole class staring at the five of them and a rather annoyed teacher. 

"How many times have you been late this year, Mr.Choi?" The teacher asked, red faced and fists clenched. 

"Aish, come on, Ms.Nayeon! We weren't even late this time!" Hansol protested. 

"Where are your books then, young men?" 

Hansol opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but decided against it as he closed it again and hung his head. The teacher's face softened as she told the five of them to find their seats. She stopped Mingyu before he sat down though, "Everyone, this is Kim Mingyu, he is a new student here as he just got here yesterday, he will be joining the first years as well." 

Mingyu gave a small and weak wave before sitting down in his at a table across from Hansol. The teacher handed him a textbook and walked back up to the front of the class. Mingyu then glanced over across the room to see a group of girls eying him and giggling amongst themselves. Mingyu knew he was attractive, I mean how could you not. At his old school his was the most popular guy there, attractive as Hell, athletically talented, smart as well. He was used to girls swooning over him, but that didn't make it any less embarrassing.

Chan sat to the right of him and elbowed him gently, noticing the girls who were staring at Mingyu as well. Mingyu swatted him away, as the teacher began speaking, "Today we'll be learning a simple fire spell. We'll be splitting into groups of two as we go outside to practice near the pit. Everyone pick their partner before heading outside." 

Mingyu looked back to his guild, about to ask one of them to be his partner, but he saw that Hansol and Seungkwan had already paired up and so had Seokmin and Chan. Mingyu internally sighed as Seokmin shrugged and gave him a "what can you do?" kind of look as Chan clung to the older. 

Mingyu felt a light tap on his shoulder, so he turned around to find a girl with dirty blonde hair standing before him. "Hey there, would you like to be my partner?" the girl asked as she gave him a wide smile. He looked past her and saw her friends in the back giggling and watching the two. Before Mingyu could answer the girl, he felt a hand on his shoulder and a voice behind him, "Sorry, Tyuzu, Mingyu's my partner. How about you run back to your little boyfriend, huh?" The girl's smile immediately fell as a snarl took its place, "Fuck off, Amber," she said before flashing Mingyu a smile and sashayed away to her group of friends. Mingyu heard the one behind him mumble, "bitch" after her.

Mingyu turned around; before him stood a girl with blonde hair that was cut almost like a boy's, covered by a hat, wearing a blue t shirt and athletic shorts that went down to her knees. She looked almost too masculine, and Mingyu could've mistaken her for a guy, but seemed to hold herself with confidence. She was very pretty too. She removed her hand from his shoulder and stuck it out towards him and the two shook hands as she said, "Hey, name's Amber. Sorry about that, but that is not a friend group you'd like to hang with. Tyuzu, herself, is sweet sometimes, but not with her friends."

"Thanks," Mingyu smiled in response.

"No problem man. Uh, we should probably get going," Amber pointed out as the rest of the class began leaving the room through the back door. "So, what's your story?" She questioned as the two walked through the door outside and headed towards what looked like a fire pit where people would start a campfire.

"What?" 

"Like how'd you get here? What's your backstory?" Amber elaborated.

"Uh, Well it's a long story," Mingyu said hesitantly. 

Amber glanced where the rest of the class was before turning back to Mingyu, "Well we got a good then minutes before Ms.Nayeon gets her crap together and we start actually doing something."

Mingyu stared at the ground for a bit, debating whether he should tell this girl he had just met. His thoughts were interrupted as Amber said, "Well, I'll go first then.

"I used to live in Los Angeles with my family before I moved to South Korea. I have a sister named Jackie. I am Taiwanese, so I speak Chinese, English, and Korean fluently, yet I still have to take that stupid Foreign Languages class. I died when there was a car crash on Banpo Bridge. There was a car teetering on the broken ledge, about to fall into the water, and there was this little girl trapped in the backseat. She couldn't have been older than seven. Her parents probably had gotten out and escaped without her. So I ran to the car and tried to pry open the door on her side, but it was jammed. So I ran to the other side to try the other. I swung open the door and climbed into the car, taking the girl out of her seatbelt. I felt the car about to go over, so I turned around and threw her out into another person's hands a few feet away from me before the car tilted far enough and it went over. The last thing I remember was blacking out before the lovely Hyuna came to please me with her grace and beauty and rescued me," Amber rolled her eyes at the last part. "I've been here for about seven months now."

"Wow, that's heavy," Mingyu managed to say, trying to figure out how to respond to that. 

"Yep, your turn now, buddy," Amber smiled at him.

Mingyu looked at the ground for a few second before he began. "I was born in Anyang and moved to Seoul after graduating Middle School. I have a little sister, Min Seo. I died due to a...school shooting." Mingyu paused giving the girl a few moments to process the information.  
  
*flashback* (trigger warning guys, if you don't like graphic scenes or continent or anything, please do not read!!!)  
  
It was like any other morning at Mingyu's college. Pissed off teachers, the reeking smell of the old cafeteria food, and the overcrowded hallways. The bell rung throughout the school and the students shuffled into their classes to first period.  
Everything had been normal that morning. The teacher was still depressed and hung over his ex fiancé, occasionally ranting his feelings out about how his ex had left him at the alter, but most of the students had blocked him out after hearing the same story for the past year. Mingyu's best friend, Wonwoo, sat in the seat beside him, dozing off in the middle of one of the teacher's rants. It wasn't like he was a bad or distracted student, in fact he was smarter than Mingyu, but you learn to get sleep wherever you can. 

Mingyu laid his head down in his forearm as he stared at his friend who was using their textbook as a pillow. Wonwoo had dark brown hair and deep, brown eyes that resembled a fox. He was older than Mingyu by a year, but was still shorter than the other, yet had a much deeper voice. Wonwoo always seemed to have a book in his face and never enjoyed any of the parties their college threw like Mingyu did, yet still went to them as Mingyu had forced him to. Wonwoo was always by his side. Where there was Mingyu, there was Wonwoo, and where there was Wonwoo, there was Mingyu. Many had come to know him as "Mingyu's friend," but he didn't mind it, he never liked attention anyways. 

Eventually the older opened his eyes and found Mingyu staring at him when he awoke from his sleep. Startled, Wonwoo flinched back and turned away to hide a blush that was forming on his face. He then stood up and left the room after whispering to Mingyu that he was going to go to the bathroom. Mingyu simply nodded his head in acknowledgment before dozing off himself. 

Not two minutes afterwards did the voice of the principal come out from the intercom. "The school is going into an immediate lockdown right now, there is a stranger in the building wielding a gun. This is not a drill. Teachers, lock all doors and close the window blinds."

The students in the class at this point had all been woken up and were in a state of panic. The teacher calmed everyone down and had them all quiet before they gathered along the side of the wall and sat there as the teacher pulled down the blinds on the windows. Before the teacher went to lock the door, Mingyu remembered Wonwoo and that he had left to go to the bathroom. The principal's warning was only addressed in the classrooms and not on the speakers in the hallways. The restroom was at least a ten minute walk away. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," Mingyu mumbled under his breath before he stood up abruptly and rushed out of the door.

"Mingyu!" he heard his teacher whisper after him as he shut the door behind him and ran down the hallway in search to find Wonwoo to warn him about the lockdown.

Mingyu sprinted down the hallways, not caring as he felt his breath shorten and his legs started to burn. All Mingyu could think was, "Where the Hell is he?" 

Mingyu took a turn and saw Wonwoo walking leisurely in the hallways, taking his time, in no rush to get back to class and oblivious to the fact that the school was on lockdown. Mingyu sighed in relief and continued to run towards him. The other turned around when he heard Mingyu's footsteps behind him. "Ming-"

Mingyu clamped a hand over Wonwoo's mouth, signaling to the other to be quiet as he searched for somewhere to hide. He spotted a Janitor's closet a few feet ahead of him; he took Wonwoo's hand and dragged him into the closet and shut the door behind him. The closet was tiny, so the two were squished together, Wonwoo's back pressed up against Mingyu's chest. 

Wonwoo turned his head around to face Mingyu as he whispered, "What the Hell is this? Are doing another one of your stupid pranks again?"

Mingyu shook his head frantically and whispered to the other, "No, no, Wonwoo, the school's on lockdown, there's a crazy guy with a gun in the building." 

The two stood there in silence as Wonwoo studied Mingyu's face, trying to figure out if the other one was lying. Eventually Wonwoo came to believe the younger and faced forward again, as his breath quickened, trying not to panic. Mingyu saw his friend's distress and slipped his hands around the shorter's waist and wrapped his arms around him, hugging the other close, trying to comfort him, a way of saying "it's alright, everything will be alright." Wonwoo could feel Mingyu's breath against his cheek as the taller rested his head on Wonwoo's shoulder.

The two stood that way holding each other tightly when they heard footsteps in the hallway. They both held their breath and tensed when they heard the footsteps growing louder and closer. Mingyu held the other closer to him, his grip tightening in fear. The footsteps stopped a few feet ahead of them, in front of the door to another classroom across from them. The two heard loud noises in the hallway as the man tried to kick the door down. Wonwoo shuddered and could feel tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes. 

The man soon got fed up with trying to kick the door down and then shot at the door handle. The gun shots etched through the silent hallway. They heard a few high pitched screams coming from the classroom. Wonwoo choked back a sob as he put a hand over his mouth.

The man then rammed into the door with all his strength and the door then broke and finally broke open. They heard more gun shots and screams emitting from the classroom. 

Wonwoo whimpered then, not knowing what to do as he remained in the closet with Mingyu. Wonwoo then felt Mingyu's hands leave his waist. He turned his head slightly around, confused at what the other was doing. Mingyu had a look in his eyes. A look that scared him. Never had Wonwoo ever seen that look before. It struck him to the core and made his blood run cold. Never had Wonwoo ever looked at Mingyu and had the feeling "scared" ever come out of it. He could see Mingyu had made a choice. And when Mingyu made a decision, he always carried it out, no matter that the cost. "Don't...please..." Wonwoo was barely able to whisper as he brought his hand up to caress the taller's cheek. Mingyu slightly shook his head as he took Wonwoo's hand and held it for a second before letting it drop. Mingyu then set a hand on the door handle and looked back at Wonwoo, who had a pleading look in his eyes before he burst out of the closet. 

Mingyu ran into the classroom where a man who looked to be about in his mind forties was carrying a gun and aiming it at the students who were screaming and crying in the corner. Mingyu's heart filled with rage right then. The sight of his peers, crouching down in the corner, helpless and defenseless, just waiting to be slaughtered made his blood boil. How fucking dare this man come into his school and threaten and hurt his friends. Innocent people who had done no harm, who didn't deserve this. How could someone do such a thing?

Mingyu then rushed forward towards the man and swung his arm down on the man's that held the gun. The gun fell to the floor as the man gasped and stumbled backwards. Before the man was able to recover, Mingyu threw a punch at his face, landing straight in his jaw. The other fell back in pain as he brought a hand up to the side of his jaw. "Don't you fucking dare touch these people! Don't you fucking lay a damn hand on them!" Mingyu screamed, spit flying out of his mouth as he released his rage onto the man.

The man snarled at him and hurled himself into the other, making them both fall into the floor. The two wrestled with each other, landing punches on one another. Mingyu could hear screams of panic in the background as the two fought on the ground. Mingyu saw the man search for the gun on the floor and the two struggled as they both reached for it, trying to obtain the weapon before the other. 

Mingyu shoved the man's head into the floor as he scrambled across the floor and reached for the gun. His hand barely touched the handle before the man roared in fury and pulled him backwards and scooped the gun up before him. Mingyu froze in place, still on the floor, as the gun was pointed straight at him. The man had bloodshot eyes and shook as he held the gun in his hand. 

Mingyu knew what was to happen next. He expected it. He knew eventually death would catch up to him one day, and so he accepted it. Mingyu closed his eyes as he took a breath and awaited his fate. He heard a gunshot fire and ringing in his ears. His body crumpled to the ground, but he felt no pain. He felt nothing. He couldn't open his eyes either, but he could hear voices and noises in the distance. He heard the man's footsteps as he ran out of the building through the backdoor to escape outside. He heard the screams and sobs of the students in the back who were huddled in the corner, too afraid to move. And he heard Wonwoo's screaming his name as he ran to him. 

"No, no, no, no, no, no! Not like this Gyu! Please, please, Mingyu. Don't leave me, please. You're alright, you're going to be alright, just hang in there. Someone! Someone please help!" Mingyu heard his best friend cry out as he felt him cradle his body in his arms. Everything sounded in the distance though, as if he was underwater. He could still hear Wonwoo's cries and feel his sobbing as he held Mingyu's body to his chest when Mingyu slipped into the darkness and felt Death reaching his hand out towards him, offering to take the boy away.

*end of flashback*

"Fuck," was all Amber could say after Mingyu described the events leading up to his death.

"Ya, fuck, indeed," Mingyu responded as he kicked some dust around on the ground.

Amber opened her mouth to sat something, but was interrupted by the teacher yelling out to the class to gather around. "So as you all know I am the potions and spells teacher. Since this is only your first year, we'll only be learning very simple spells. We'll be learning how to create a fireball today and tomorrow we'll be learning how to shoot and aim it," Ms.Nayeon announced to the class. 

"My assistant for the day, Jihoon, will be helping with one on one as I demonstrate to the class, he'll be giving you the attention and help you may need," Ms.Nayeon motioned towards the small, blonde boy who waved a little to everyone and instantly smiled when he saw Mingyu. 

Jihoon then walked towards Mingyu and Amber, "Hey goatface, didn't expect to see you this period."

Mingyu rolled his eyes as he told the smaller, "I'm in the same class as the other first years in the guild."

Jihoon shrugged as he motioned for the two of them to come closer to the pit and further away from the teacher. "I'm supposed to be helping everyone around here, but I'm sure Ms.Nayeon won't mind if I teacher you two privately."  
Amber gave Mingyu a confused look and all Mingyu could do was shrug. "I'm the best at potions here in school and some spells, but Hoshi's better at spells," Jihoon told him.

"Here, so Amber, you already know how to harness magic in general, right?" Jihoon asked the girl. Amber nodded. "Ok good, then just hang there for a while, Mingyu still doesn't.

"So I need you to close your eyes and breath in and out deeply," Jihoon told him. Mingyu raised an eyebrow, not sure if he should take the small devil serious or not. "Just trust me here."

"Whatever you say," Mingyu responded as he closed his eyes and followed the instructions.

"Now I want you to focus on reaching inside of you and pulling something out. Just imagine you unraveling and pulling a silk ribbon out."

Mingyu took a deep breath before he pictured in his mind of a golden, silk ribbon and imagined pulling it. As he did so, he felt as if he was tugging on the air around him, as if everything was pulling towards him. "Good! Good! Now raise your hands, palms faced up, and imagined forming the energy you feel around you into a ball," the smaller continued to instruct him.

And so Mingyu did, he felt the energy around him pull together and form a ball that floated in his hands. Mingyu opened his eyes and found a ball of light floating in his hands. Shocked at what was happening, Mingyu started to loose focus and in an instant the ball disappeared. 

"That was good! Really good!" Jihoon complimented him. "Now what we're going to do for the fireball," Jihoon Saud addressing both Mingyu and Amber, "is imagine that ball on fire. The key to magic is to take its energy and imagining it and turning it into what you want."

Mingyu and Amber repeated the steps to where they both held balls of light in their hands. "Now imagine them as balls of fire instead," Jihoon told them. Mingyu closed his eyes again and imagined the ball slowly turning hotter and hotter and forming into a ball of fire. Mingyu then opened his eyes to see if anything had changed and when he did, both Amber and himself were currently holding balls of fire in their hands.

Mingyu gasped as his focused slipped. "Oh my gosh, dude! That was AMAZING!" Mingyu enthusiastically told Amber and Jihoon. Amber nodded her head in agreement and Jihoon had a proud smirk on his face.

"You did much better than the rest of the people here," Jihoon complimented the other, which rarely ever happened. "Well, I'll leave you two here, I have to go help the others now," Jihoon said as he left them.

For the rest of the class period the two of them practiced forming fireballs and nearly burned off Amber's hair in the process. Soon the bell rang and the students returned to the classroom to gather their stuff before leaving for their next class. Before Mingyu headed off with his guild members to the next class, Amber stopped him, "Hey, if you ever need to talk about anything just to get some things off your mind, you can talk to me anytime," she told him with a caring look in her eyes. 

Mingyu smiled back at her as he thanked her and went off with his members to the next class.

The next class was Medicine and Herbs where they learned about different plants and their healing properties. Jisoo was currently training to be a healer and explained to him that it was forbidden for those who weren't training to perform healing spells due to the high risk of further injury and inexperience, and so the school could hold a monopoly over healers. The teacher was a light brown haired woman, Ms.Somin.

Third period was History where they learned about the history and past of mythical/supernatural creatures, beasts, and darklings, which no one had bothered to explain what darklings were. Mingyu's teacher was Mr.Sunggyu. He had a friendly smile, but Mingyu could tell he was a firm teacher. 

Next was forth period where he would either take Art, Music, or Drama. Each day he would take one of the three classes and it would change the next day. Today he had Art, it was pretty much the same as a high school art class. His teacher was Ms.Jaekyung who was a very friendly and encouraging teacher.

Next was Creatures and Beasts class. It was practically the same as history class, but much more hands on. They were able to see the creatures in real life and learn how to handle and take care of them. Later on they would be able to raise and keep a creature as their own as their companions. The teachers were BM and Jackson who were both very fit and muscular and Jackson, who Mingyu knew was from Got7, had a tendency to take his shirt off during class.  
After that was lunch. Unlike the first time Mingyu had met the guild, the guild members were divided and sat with different people. Seungcheol, Jun, Chan, Jeonghan, and Hansol all sat in the middle table with the rest of their popular gang while the remainder members sat at the last table with Mingyu or had left to go outside or elsewhere in the school. Mingyu sat next to Minghao and Soonyoung who were having a debate about whether pancakes or waffles were better. "Hey, Minghao, why aren't you sitting with Jun since you two are together and stuff? In fact the whole day neither of you have spoken much with each other in general," Mingyu asked Minghao curiously.

Minghao nervously bit his lip and looked down at the floor, uncomfortable about the topic that had come up. Soonyoung answered Mingyu as he leaned in and quietly told Mingyu in his ear, "Jun isn't out to anyone but the guild right now.Minghao wants him to come out, but Jun won't. It's a sensitive topic." Immediately after Soonyoung told Mingyu that, Minghao excused himself and said he was going to go to the library. 

Mingyu then asked the other, "What, are people like homophobic here?"

Soonyoung shook his head, "No, in fact the majority of people here are gay themselves. A lot of people are here due to suicide because of their oppressive families who just drove them over the edge. Wow, that got dark. But anyways, I really don't know about Jun, he has a reputation of being a player here with the girls, so maybe that's why," Soonyoung suggested with a shrug.

"Wait, aren't people here because they died a heroic death? How is suicide heroic...?" Mingyu asked hesitantly. 

"Not everyone here died necessarily a heroic death. Most of us did something brave and selfless before and then died lateron and came here. Although I'm not really sure how half the people here have even gotten in due to their arrogance and egos. A lot of people here died of old age actually and were brought back here in their young form, like Mr.Sunggyu, he was born in 1847, he's been here for years. The principal, Kyuhyun, has been here for who knows how long. If you've done a significant and brave act, you get sent here, but you have to be either a genius like Jihoon or me, or be able to be a warrior," Soonyoung explained to him.

"Ah, ok. Great," Mingyu responded shortly, not really sure how to respond to that. The two ate the rest of their lunch in silence as Mingyu watched the popular table, "Maybe tomorrow," Mingyu thought to himself, not used to not being in the popular group. 

Next period Mingyu suffered through another grueling hour with Ms.Jamie in Foreign Languages class who was still subbing for Mr.Park.

Eighth period was Defense and Fighting class where they would teach you how to specialize and fight with weapons. The whole class though, Mingyu spent talking with other first years as the teachers, Momo, Hyunseong, and Hoya spent the time on helping other individuals who were ready to pick their own personal weapons. 

And the last period of the day was a free period where most people would go back to their dorms. Others spent the time asking teachers for their help or went to school clubs. Mingyu was given a form that listed all of the clubs he could join along with a new iPhone from Seungcheol. Mingyu looked at Seungcheol, slightly confused.

"What? We still need phones and stuff to communicate with each other, how do you expect us to find each other in this gigantic school?" Seungcheol asked.

Mingyu shrugged, "I don't know, somehow I thought you guys didn't really use technology here with having magic and all."  
"We have a Tv in out living room, Mingyu. I have all of the guilds contacts saved already in the phone by the way."

"Thanks."

As Seungcheol walked away he shouted back at Mingyu, "We're not barbarians here, you know!"Mingyu looked up at the wall and stared at the various weapons on display. "Sure," Mingyu muttered.

When it was time for dinner in the dining room (which was the exact same place as the lunch room) Mingyu didn't talk much, too exhausted and overwhelmed to make small talk.

When dinner was over with Mingyu collapsed onto his bed and sighed in relief. The other members gathered into the room, some went to go get showers as others went to go get ready for bed. While the other members were doing that, Hansol and Mingyu started talking as bit.

"You got a lover back at home?" Hansol asked as he laid on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

Mingyu hesitated, not quiet sure how to answer the question. After he had told Amber about the school shooting, he couldn't get his best friend out of his mind. How peaceful he looked when he slept, how he had held him close in the closet, his cloudy eyes and tear stained face in the closet the last time he saw him. Wonwoo had always been one of, if not the most important person in his life. He couldn't imagine life without him, but now he really was without him. He was too overwhelmed yesterday to give much thought into the events that lead to his death. But now he couldn't get it out of his mind. He wondered how Wonwoo was doing without him, how he was coping with...His death. Without Wonwoo, he felt empty, like the other half of him was missing. His absence made him feel so alone, despite the fact he was surrounded by another people and friends. It wasn't until now did he realise how much he needed Wonwoo. And it was then he started to question, was what he felt for Wonwoo more than what he thought it was, was his feelings just platonic, or was it more?

Hansol's question hung in the air for a minutes before Mingyu answered, "Sort of."

Hansol raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Mingyu before returning his gaze back up at the ceiling, but he didn't question Mingyu further. The two sat in silence before Seokmin and Chan came out of the bathroom and Mingyu went in to take a shower.

After cleaning himself up, Mingyu stumbled through the dark, nearly breaking his face on a bed post in the process as the others had already gone to sleep. Mingyu pulled the covers over his body as he fell asleep of thinking of Wonwoo's deep, dark eyes that he could get lost in for hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy guys, I'm back! Sorry this chapter was a bit triggering and dark. I didn't really know how to explain everything that happened in a more detailed and better way, but this is what we got. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to have Mingyu go out the way he did because it's super triggering and dark and stuff, but you know, I did want to put that in. Sorry if how I explained the magic fireballs was crap, I really honestly didn't know how to write that, so this is what we got. Actually, everything I wrote after the fireball lesson got deleted last morning and I was super pissed because I wanted to post the chapter yesterday, but couldn't and I was up really late working on the rest of the chapter but you know it's ok because I was able to rewrite it much better because the first time I did, I rushed through it a lot, trying to get the chapter done, so I'm happy I got to take my time and rewrite it and stuff. Look forward to the next chapter, we finally get Wonwoo's point of view, also, a lot of people in fanfics say he has Fox eyes, so I was like, ok, sure, why not, so Idk guys.. It will also be super triggering and depressing btw. When you actually do research to write a fricking fanfic, lol. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed and leave a comment down below please, it really helps with motivation and stuff, and even if you didn't like this chapter or anything in the story, you can tell me, criticism helps and it'll help me improve this fanfic :3


	5. A Walk Down Memory Lane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo is depressed and can't live without Mingyu....I think you guys know where this is heading. *Trigger Warning bitches*

Wonwoo remembered everything that day to the tiniest detail. Most people would say that everything was a blur, that they were too confused and filled with grief to remember anything. But Wonwoo remembered. He remembered holding Mingyu's limp body in his arms. How he continued to beg to any God out there that Mingyu would be spared, even when he knew his friend was gone. 

He remembered how the police ran down the hallways and asked him what had happened. How he couldn't even answer, how he just grabbed the officer and looked into his eyes, begging for him to save Mingyu and then sobbed into the police man's shoulder. 

He remembered the blaring sirens and the paramedics that appeared beside him, trying to take Mingyu from his arms, but he held tight, he couldn't let go of him, not yet. He remembered one of the paramedics who felt for a pulse and then lifted her head up as their eyes met, how hers were filled with sympathy and how he was clinging into the last bit of hope still left in him. He remembered how she shook her head and when she apologized to him, saying it was too late. But the words never made it to Wonwoo's ears. 

He remembered hearing a deafening scream. A scream filled with so much sorrow and pain, a scream that truly represented a heart breaking. Shattering into millions of tiny pieces that could never be put back together, that would never be the same. Only a few seconds later did Wonwoo realise it was he who was releasing such a devastated and desperate cry. 

Wonwoo hugged Mingyu's body to his chest, not caring about the blood seeping into his shirt as he buried his face into the crook of Mingyu's neck. He sobbed and shook, tears spilling out constantly, staining his bright, red face. He didn't know how long he stayed like that. It wasn't until a hand rested on his shoulder did he look up to observe his surroundings.

Half the police had gone and ran after the shooter and the other half were interviewing the students in the class room. Many of them were covered with orange blankets, apparently that helped with the shock. Many of them were in tears, but no one had been injured. Well, all except one. 

Wonwoo let the hand gently pull him away from Mingyu's cold body. He immediately turned around and pulled the police woman, who had led him away from the body as paramedics rushed to clean the scene before any more students were exposed to the horrific sight, into a hug. He clung onto her as if it was the last thing tying him to reality. He cried into her shoulder as he bent down a bit due to his height and then woman wrapped her arms around him as she patted his back and tried to sooth him. 

The police woman lead him to a chair in the classroom, but no one dared to interview him, not when he was like this. He sat there for about an hour as other students left to go home. School was cancelled and let out early and many students left the school in shock and fear. The tears had finally stopped after a while, but his heart still ached. His brain couldn't process anything. He remembered the nice police woman squatted before him and told him that his mother had been called and she would be on her way. 

Wonwoo remembered how his mother had come in, running to him with tears in her eyes. She had known how much Mingyu meant to him. He hugged his mom and the tears came rushing in again. His mom lead him away and reassured the police officers that Wonwoo would be able to be interviewed later. She had brought him home that night. She made his favourite dish and his younger brother, Bohyuk, had come back from school and immediately noticed the unusual mood. Wonwoo remembered his mother taking his younger brother into another room as she carefully explained to him what had happened. 

Bohyuk then returned from his room and gave Wonwoo a hug. Wonwoo smiled and hugged his younger brother back and the family ate in silence. Wonwoo left to go back to his dorm, despite his mother's pleads for his to stay. He reassured her that he was ok and he could drive back to his dorm.

But Wonwoo wasn't ok. He was far from ok. But he had to stay strong for his mom, for his younger brother. He finally lost it when he shut the door to his dorm. To his and Mingyu's dorm. He immediately fell to the ground, sobbing and shaking. He stayed that way for hours into the night, his arms wrapped around his knees and his head rested on them. He cried for hours until he finally had the strength to get up and at least crawl into bed. He didn't follow his normal routine before going to bed. Instead he stumbled into Mingyu's room and collapsed on the bed, wrapping himself in the covers that still smelled like Mingyu. And he cried until his vision went black.

That was three week ago. The school had given him a week off so Wonwoo could deal with his grief. After a few days he had finally reported to the police and told them everything, crying through most of it. He had gone back to school, but he couldn't focus on anything. He used to be one of the top students in his classes, but he was slipping. He didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered. The one thing that brought him happiness was tooken from him. From a man who escaped the grasps of the police. Who was never caught and held responsible for his actions, who was never brought before the court in order for justice. Who never got what he deserved.   
His teachers had noticed his abnormal behavior too and had tried to help him, but he brushed them all off and ignored his mother's suggestion to get a therapist. His classmates stared at him everywhere he went. Some had come up to him to saying "I'm sorry for your loss," always the same thing, but no one really cared. Most people left him alone, avoided him, not wanting to see him finally break down. 

One time he had walked into class and took sight of the bright red counters and he nearly lost it. How dare such a colour exist when everything was shit. When the brightest thing in the world was gone. The colour offended him and so he stormed out of class and locked himself in his dorm that day. And he didn't come out.

And that brings us to now. Wonwoo was sitting on the bed in Mingyu's room as he stared at the grey wall in front of him. 

Wonwoo couldn't get the sight of Mingyu's body crumbling to the ground off his mind. He didn't deserve it. Mingyu the best thing that happened to Wonwoo. Ya, he had a big ego sometimes, but he was a good person. He had a huge heart with lots of love to give. He was kind and smart. He was the only person who understood Wonwoo, who actually spent the time to know him. 

They didn't really start out as friends. The first time they encountered each other was in their first year of high school into the school library. Their English teacher had them read The Book Thief and write a report on it that semester. Despite Wonwoo being a year older than Mingyu, Mingyu had barely made the age cut to be in Wonwoo's grade. The two had both reached for the last copy of the Book Thief in the library. Wonwoo had apologized and said the younger to take it. Mingyu had smiled at him and thanked him before he left to check out the book. Wonwoo had ended up buying the book online instead, but it was worth the money to have met the silver haired boy.

Their next encounter was not until a year later. Wonwoo and his friend, Jessica, were walking down the hallways during their free period. She was ranting to him about how her best friend had betrayed her or something, Wonwoo wasn't really sure, he wasn't really even listening to her, sometimes it was just good enough for him to just be there for her to rant to. Sometimes Wonwoo questioned how he ended up being friends with someone like Jessica. As Jessica was walking with him as he occasionally nodded his head as if he understood what she was saying, a finger tapped her on the shoulder. The two of them turned around to find the newly popular student, Mingyu, holding a rose in his hand. He had asked Jessica if she would go out with him. His friend had obviously said yes, and the two dated for a few months before Jessica ended it with him. 

Wonwoo didn't mind then, Mingyu was a nice guy, and his friend wasn't hurt. Besides he didn't know Mingyu then. Years later, Jessica would be sent to Seoul's Asylum for reasons unknown.

The next time they met was two weeks later after him and Jessica had broken up. Wonwoo was near his locker, bawling his eyes out on the floor. He had failed his algebra test that day, and had previously had his ass handed to him by a group of boys who had nothing better than to do than call him a fag and beat him to the ground. And then afterwards he had received news from his mother that his dad had tried to commit suicide. A few months earlier, his mother had wanted to divorce his father. His dad never saw it coming, was overcome by grief and since then he had never been the same. The old, loving father he knew was gone. In his place was a depressed, sullen man who stopped eating with the family and didn't even return from work most days. And now he was dying in the hospital. Despite Wonwoo's cold eyes and unapproachable demeanor, Wonwoo was very sensitive and couldn't hold back his tears anymore.

Mingyu was alone, coming back from basketball practice when he found the older with his head down, sobbing. Mingyu's first instinct was to turn around and pretend as though he had not seen the boy at all. But Mingyu shoved that thought back as he walked up to the boy. 

Wonwoo could hear Mingyu's footsteps as he approached, preparing himself for another beating. When he looked up though, he found the silver haired boy with an outstretched hand to him. Not trusting the other, Wonwoo rested his head on his knees again and ignored the other.   
After a minute of awkward silence, Mingyu hadn't moved. 

"Don't you have something better to do than to watch me sit here and cry?" Wonwoo asked as he wiped his eyes when he had finally stopped crying, surprised at how clear and stable his voice was.

Wonwoo received no answer. He looked up again and Mingyu was still standing there, hand still outstretched. Wonwoo narrowed his eyes and frowned as he studied the taller boy. Wonwoo let his head hang down again as he pleaded with the other, "Would you please just go away?"

Again, Wonwoo received no answer and the younger did not move. Wonwoo flung his head up, suddenly feeling angry and poor Mingyu would be the victim of all of his stuffed up feelings, "I said go away!" Tears started to form in the corners of his eyes again as exhaustion over took him and his anger faded away. 

Wonwoo then felt embarrassed by his sudden outburst, "I-I'm...I'm sorry... that...I...didn't mean to..." He trialled off at the end. 

Again, no response. 

Wonwoo sighed as confusion of why the boy had not spoken nor left settled over the awkwardness. Wonwoo looked into the boys eyes one more time before he hesitantly took the taller's hand. 

The younger was surprisingly very strong, but gently helped the Wonwoo to his feet. He began walking down the hallway and Wonwoo followed after him in confusion.

The two walked down the hallway in silence till the taller said, "Mingyu."

"What?"

"That's my name."

"Oh, ya, I know," Wonwoo immediately realized how weird and creepy that sounded and mentally facepalmed himself. Mingyu turned to him and raised and eyebrow but didn't question him, most people knew who he was anyways. 

"Wonwoo. My name's Wonwoo."

"I know."

Wonwoo's head whipped towards him in confusion. How did Mr.Popular guy himself know who he was? Wonwoo was just a quiet book nerd who no one ever paid attention to. 

"Jess, mentioned you," Mingyu explained, referring to his ex girlfriend and Wonwoo's friend, Jessica. 

"Ahhh," Wonwoo said as he nodded his head. The two returned to silence as Mingyu lead the way outside into the parking lot. Once the two were outside, Wonwoo stopped as Mingyu continued to walk ahead. Wonwoo wasn't sure what to do or even if he should follow the other.  
Mingyu noticed that the older had stopped following him and he walked back to him and took his wrist silently, leading him to his car. He pulled out his keys and unlocked the door before he opened the front passenger seat, mentioning for Wonwoo to get in.

"Um...it's ok.. you-you don't need to do this, I can call someone to pick me-"

"Just get in," Mingyu said with a commanding tone, but not in a cold or aggressive way.  
Wonwoo shrugged to himself and got into the car. Mingyu walked around and sat into the driver's seat.

Without looking over, Mingyu asked the other, "Where do you live?"

"Huh?"

"I'm taking you home, where do you live?" Mingyu repeated as he started the car.

"I-um, can you just take me to the hospital please?" Wonwoo responded as he fiddled his thumbs.

Mingyu raised an eyebrow again, but didn't question Wonwoo further, "Sure."  
The two didn't speak the rest of the ride to the hospital until Wonwoo thanked Mingyu and got out of the car. 

"Wait," Wonwoo heard the other as he was about to shut the car door. Wonwoo opened the door a little bit as he peered into the car at Mingyu. 

"Here," Mingyu said as he reached over and handed Wonwoo something. Wonwoo opened his palm and found a golden bracelet from the brand Alex And Ani with three small charms shaped into circles and one larger charm the shape of a heart that had the words "FML" engraved in it. Wonwoo looked up to Mingyu, confused.

"It was meant for Jess, but we broke up before I could give it to her, it used to be out inside joke," he explained as he lifted his own wrist to show Wonwoo the matching one he had, "but I guess you could have it instead."

Wonwoo looked back at the bracelet before slipping it on to his wrist. He thanked Mingyu again and waited outside of the doors to the hospital watching Mingyu's car drive off.   
Wonwoo's dad died that night. He had tried to hang himself with a belt earlier that day, and his mother had found him in the bathroom. He had too much brain damage by the time he was brought to the hospital and by night the only thing keeping him alive was a machine and they took him off of life support that night. 

Wonwoo and Mingyu didn't talk again till their their year in high school. They had seen each other in the hallway, but never initiated contact. But Wonwoo always wore that gold bracelet everyday afterwards. Some of his friend questioned him about it, but he never explained to them where he got it. Mingyu never knew how thankful Wonwoo really was for lifting him off the ground that day.

The next year the two had biology together. Mingyu didn't have any friends in that class and Wonwoo barely had any friends at all. The two were assigned to do a class project together.

"Hey."

"Hey..."

"How is it that we keep seeing each other, but never bothered to be friends," Mingyu asked him. 

"Hmmm... Maybe the universe has been trying to tell us we're soulmates, but we keep ignoring it, and the universe is finally fed up with our bullshit."

"Are you saying we're destined to be together?" Mingyu teased.

"It's the only possible explanation," Wonwoo said as he rolled his eyes.

It was awkward at first, but the two became friends later on throughout the year. In fact they became the best of friends. Despite being so different, they were about as close as you could get. Wonwoo was welcomed into Mingyu's friend group, but usually stayed silent most of the time. Mingyu had forced him to go to parties that Wonwoo never enjoyed, but it was all worth it to be friends with the silver haired boy. Mingyu became Wonwoo's everything.

Wonwoo remembered the moment he realized he had fallen in love with his best friend.   
It was their forth and last year of high school at an end of the year party. The two had both been offered scholarships at the same college and the two boys were celebrating their graduation and their luck that they would be able to stay together in college as well.   
  
*flashback*

The smell of cheap vodka and sweat was in the air. Loud, overplayed pop music played, pounding out of the speakers. Wonwoo sat on a brown leather couch next to a couple who were practically eating each other's faces off, as Wonwoo wondered who's house he was even in. Wonwoo never like parties. Too many people. So many drunk, idiotic people. And one of those idiotic people was Mingyu, which Wonwoo happened to be responsible for and was the only reason Wonwoo ever came to parties like this. He, however, was nowhere to be found. "Whatever, he'll show up eventually," Wonwoo thought to himself. A few girls had previously tried to flirt with him, but Wonwoo politely rejected them. Stuck up, drunk idiots. That's who he was surrounded by. About a hundred stuck up, drunk, idiots.

Wonwoo sighed to himself, as he longingly stared at the mini bar and red cups. "I might as well become one with the stuck up, drunk, idiots. If you can't fight them, might as well join them," Wonwoo thought to himself. 

Wonwoo walked to the mini bar and poured himself some champagne into a red cup. "I've graduated, champagne is a good fancy drink, right?" Wonwoo shrugged to himself. He lifted the cup to his lips and took a sip of the drink before he nearly spat it out. God it was bad. Wonwoo decided then he did not like champagne, but continued to drink it regardless, not quiet sure why.

Wonwoo stared down at his drink, glaring at it. "Where the Hell is Mingyu? He should be here with me, celebrating with me like we had planned junior year," Wonwoo thought to himself as he imagined Mingyu swooning over some stupid cheerleader. Whatever. 

Wonwoo continued sipping his drink as he looked around the room, observing the stuck up, drunk idiots around him. "You know what, I can't deal with this. This was supposed to be Mingyu's and my celebration night, but Mingyu's not even fucking here," Wonwoo thought as he set his plastic cup down and prepared to leave the party. 

Wonwoo walked through the living room, headed towards the front door, but was suddenly stopped when he felt an arm sling around his shoulders and a voice whisper into his ear, "Where you going, Won? Tonight's our graduation party! I haven't even showed you what I prepared for you." 

Wonwoo rolled his eyes as he turned his head to face the other, "Shut up, Gyu. You're the one who abandoned me. You breathe fucking stinks by the way."

Mingyu clutched his heart dramatically as he presented to be offended. "Come on, I actually do have something to show you," Mingyu pleaded with Wonwoo as he took his wrist, tugging at it gently. 

Wonwoo rolled his eyes as he chuckled and let Mingyu lead him through the crowd of people and upstairs. Mingyu stopped at a door at the top of the stairs and pushed it open. Mingyu lead Wonwoo through the door to the roof of the house. 

"Nice," Wonwoo said as he stared up at the black, night sky that was decorated with glowing stars above them. Mingyu continued to lead him to a blanket placed on the ground. 

"How romantic," Wonwoo laughed as he rolled his eyes at the other.

"Oh, shut up! You're the nerd here who's obsessed with astronomy!" Mingyu teased him as they both laid down on the blanket, staring at the stars above them. 

The two silently stated up at the night sky, admiring its beauty. Mingyu turned his head to Wonwoo. The two were close together and Wonwoo felt his breathe as he asked the other, "Do you like it? I thought this would be nice as an end of the year thing."

Wonwoo turned his head towards the other as he smiled, "This is perfect." Mingyu returned his smile with his own and the two continued to lay there. It was times like this that Wonwoo enjoyed. Where they could just sit in silence and enjoy each other's company. Eventually Mingyu lifted his head and rested it on Wonwoo's arm he had folded underneath his head. Wonwoo could feel his heart beat faster and became worried that Mingyu would notice, but he didn't. Mingyu's hair tickled his arm and the side of his neck. Wonwoo looked over at the other. Mingyu's hair shifted in the wind, his eyes were glazed over a bit as he stared up at the sky, and his lips were slightly parted. His chest moved up and down and his rough, calloused hands rested on his stomach. They were both wearing their matching bracelets from two years ago. The two were so close that it's Mingyu turned his head slightly to the right towards Wonwoo, they'd be kissing. This was when he realized he had fallen in love with Mingyu. 

Wonwoo had always known he liked Mingyu more than just friends, but he never admitted it to himself. Wonwoo was gay, yes he knew that, the bullies were right, he was a fag, but Mingyu was straight. Besides how could he fall for his best friend? He couldn't ruin their friendship. Their friendship was the most important thing to him, he couldn't let his stupid feelings get in the way of that, so he pushed down those feelings. But this moment, where the two were gazing up at the stars, was when Wonwoo realized how screwed he was. How screwed he was for falling for his best friend. 

*end of flashback*

The next two years in college was a rollercoaster of emotions. Mingyu continued to date other girls. Every time he brought a new girl around, Wonwoo felt the feeling of jealousy bubble inside him, but he had to play it cool. It became easy for him over the years though, too easy. Too easy to pretend like every time he saw Mingyu with another girl, it didn't kill him inside. Too easy to just casually have a conversation with Mingyu about how attractive other girls were or how sex was for him during that one night stand. Too easy for him to pretend to be straight and go on dates that Mingyu had suggested for him. Too easy to dismiss Mingyu and playfully push him away whenever Mingyu would tell him he loved him when Wonwoo completed an essay for him. It was hard though at the same time. The hard times came around when Mingyu would come back to the dorm, drunk, and would fall asleep in Wonwoo's bed, looking like a lost puppy and sleeping peacefully in his bed. The hard times were when Mingyu has having trouble with school and his family back home and would break down in tears in front of him. That was when Wonwoo wanted to kiss and cuddle the younger, to reassure him that everything was alright and he was always there for him. The hard times were when Wonwoo's heart started to pound harder whenever the other shot him that godforsaken gorgeous smile of his. The hard times were at night, when Wonwoo stayed up thinking about Mingyu and how he could be lost in those eyes forever. Everything was just so hard. 

And it still is. Wonwoo couldn't get Mingyu out of his mind. How he hadn't told Mingyu how he felt before he died. He regretted it so much. And now there was nothing he could do. Wonwoo spent hours staring at the grey wall.

The world will forever spin, no matter what happens, time will never slow. "I can't take it anymore," Wonwoo thought to himself. Not any longer.

And so Wonwoo thought of something. He checked his phone before though. His friend had texted him about five minutes ago, saying that if Wonwoo doesn't leave his dorm and meet him at his place in an hour, he would come to Wonwoo's place and drag him out of the dorm himself. "Great, I have one hour."

Wonwoo gathered up all his sleeping pills in the house and set them before him. Wonwoo had always had a trouble going to sleep and now with the memories of Mingyu stuck in his head at night, it was even harder. Luckily his doctor had prescribed him stronger meds. He needed this."I need to escape," Wonwoo thought to himself.

And with that he poured all his sleeping pills into his mouth and swallowed, taking them 5 at a time till the three containers were all empty. "I need this," was all he could think. The sentence repeated in his mind as he slowly became dizzy and disoriented. Wonwoo fell to his knees in the kitchen as the room started to spin around him. Black spots appeared in his vision and then everything went black. He heard a distant noise somewhere. Knocking. Hands pounding at the door, someone calling his name. But he could open his eyes. I need this... I need this....

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aghghgh!! And here came the angst boiiii XD We got depressed, emo Wonwoo. Sorry if this chapter is a bit shorter than last time, but there's only so much I can put in for some back story. Hope y'all enjoyed these Meanie moments! Finally we got the unrequited love cliche *fingerguns* Please comment down below :3))


	6. Congratulations, You're Mentally Insane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo's not dead...yet

Paint. The overflowing odor of old paint invaded Wonwoo's nostrils as he sucked in a breath of air. It stung his nose and made him want to gag. 

Darkness. Wonwoo couldn't see a thing. He tried to pry his eyes open, but his body didn't seem to be listening to him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open his eyes.

Numbness. His mouth was numb. There was a faint disgusting medicine taste in his mouth, and his tongue and mouth was numb.

Silence. There was only silence. People used to describe silence as something peaceful, but silence was anything but that. Silence was unbearable, harsh, cold, and seemed to be choking down his words. The only thing Wonwoo could hear was his blood rushing into his head, throbbing, pounding.

Pain. Wonwoo could feel restraints around his wrists and ankles, strapping him to the surface he laid upon. They were so tight; rough against his skin. Every time he pulled against them, there was pain of bruises on his wrists starting to form.

Wonwoo choked back a sob. He was confused and scared. All he wanted to do was escape. "Just calm down. Clam down, Wonwoo. Just open your eyes," Wonwoo thought to himself, trying to settle down his racing heart. 

A bright light emerged in his vision as he slowly pried his eyes open. At first it was blinding, but his eyes soon adjusted. Plain, grey walls surrounded him. He was in a small, square room. He was strapped down on a hospital bed and wore a hospital gown.

Wonwoo felt trapped and claustrophobic here, not to mention the fact that he was literally trapped and strapped down on a bed. 

However when Wonwoo turned his head to the right, he realised he was not alone. To the right of him stood a short boy with brown curly hair, staring at his intensely with bloodshot eyes. He was so still though that Wonwoo almost missed the boy completely.

The boy smiled at him a bit, saying in a quiet voice, "You're finally awake."

Wonwoo narrowed his eyes, confused at the situation he was in. The boy took a step closer to Wonwoo, "My name's Minkyun, not like that will matter in a few minutes anyways."

The boy took another step towards Wonwoo. Wonwoo struggled against his restraints, feeling uncomfortable near the boy who was coming closer to him.

The boy then clutched the railing to the side of his bed as he leaned in to Wonwoo's face and frantically whispered, "You know you can't escape no matter what. I've tried to, so many times, but they keep bringing me back." The boy pulled down his sleeve and showed Wonwoo the deep scars that were healing on his arm. "The best thing to do is to just get it over with now, before they come back! I can help you! It'll be easy, just stay still!" The boy exclaimed as he brought out a knife from his pocket.

Wonwoo finally found his words as he he stuttered out, "What, no. L-leave me alone!"

"No, no, no, no, no, don't worry! It'll be quick and over with before the doctors even notice!" The boy told him as he placed the knife on Wonwoo's throat, not piercing the skin, but laid it there to rest as he tried to reassure the other.

"No-no, please!" Wonwoo yelled out. Funny how he was so ready to die just what felt like moments ago, but when this boy had a knife pressed up against his throat, his mind suddenly changed.

Before Minkyun could do anything, a doctor and two security guards burst into the room. The two guards grabbed Minkyun and the knife away from Wonwoo and wrestled with the boy till they finally had him restrained. 

The doctor spoke to the boy, seeming to scold the other as if he were a child who needed to be punished. "Not again, Minkyun! Where the Hell did you even get this knife?"

Minkyun winced and shrunk away from the doctor, "I was only greeting him..."

The doctor glared at the boy before he told the guards to take him to his room. The doctor then turned to Wonwoo. He had brown hair and sharp brown eyes. 

"Sorry about that, he has his episodes sometimes," the doctor told him as he pulled a chair out to sit on. 

"Where am I?" Wonwoo managed to ask as millions of other questions came to mind. 

"You're at SM Asylum. It's a psychiatric ward for those who need to be monitored 24/7. My name is Dr.Kwangji," the doctor explained to him.

"Why am I here?"

"Sir, you overdosed on sleeping pills earlier this week. You're lucky your friend found you quickly and you didn't suffer any brain damage," the doctor answered.

"But why am I here? Why aren't I in a hospital?" Wonwoo questioned, not really understanding the situation at hand.

"You're mother asked you to be sent here so you could get the help you need to recover," the doctor answered simply. 

"My mom sent me here?" Wonwoo asked in disbelief.

"Yes."

Wonwoo's eyes widened in shock. How could his mom send him to a place like...this? It didn't make sense, none of this did. "Why am I strapped down?"

"For your protection."

"Against what? The only thing they seemed to do was keep me still as someone just tried to slit my throat!" Wonwoo yelled out in anger.

"They're for protection against yourself. We don't know what you're capable of doing to others and much less yourself. After incidents like yours, we're required to keep you restrained until your doctor or therapist sees it fit to release the restraints."

"Well, I'm not going to hurt you. Or myself. So as a doctor, could you please release my restraints?" Wonwoo asked, the leather straps were painfully tight.

"Sorry, we can't do that. It's too early to do that," Dr.Kwangji told him. 

"Could you at least loosen them please, they hurt," Wonwoo pleaded.

Dr.Kwangji thought about it for a minute before shrugging and got up to loosen the restraints. Afterwards the doctor headed for the door, about to leave. "You're therapist/doctor will be here in a while. For now stay put." He then shut the door behind him, leaving Wonwoo alone in what felt like a prison cell.

"Not like I have a choice," Wonwoo mumbled to himself.

Wonwoo laid there for what felt like hours. He stared up at the moldy ceiling and watched as the water dropped slowly down from a leak onto the floor. He tried to will himself to sleep, but was unsuccessful, so he ended up repeatedly humming the theme song from The Office over and over again out loud. 

Wonwoo looked around the room again as he wondered why his mother would send him to a place like this. He understood that his attempt would upset her, but to send him to an asylum, like he was mentally insane, that just hurt. Then again, maybe he should've thought things through. He was never really the one to do something straight out of impulse, he always thought it through, but not this time. 

Wonwoo sighed to himself. An IV was stuck in his left arm, but that didn't quench his thirst of hunger. His mouth was dry and his stomach was pleading for something to sustain its hunger. 

"If only I had done it after my friend and I had hung out," Wonwoo thought to himself. Maybe Wonwoo didn't want to die now, but anything was better than this place. 

A memory of him and Mingyu suddenly flashed before his eyes for only a mere moment, but long enough for Wonwoo to remember the cause of his grief. Mingyu was still...gone. He would never be there by his side again. Wonwoo would never see his beautiful smile again. Fuck, Wonwoo would do anything just to see Mingyu smile one last time. "Stop. Just stop," Wonwoo told himself, "Think of something else, Think of something else. Else. Elsa. Let it go."  
"Let it goooooooooo!!" Wonwoo sang out loud, truly sounding like a crazy person himself. Anything, just anything to take Mingyu off his mind. But the moment of distraction was gone in an instant when another memory flashed by.  
  
*Flashback*  
  
Wonwoo had come home to his dorm and collapsed on his bed in exhaustion. He had just returned from his classes and was tired and stressed out. Wonwoo nearly fell asleep right then and there, but he heard his bedroom door open again and turned his head to find Mingyu standing in the door frame. "You ok, Won?" he asked.

"Ya, I'm good," Wonwoo answered, not wanting to worry the other with his problems.

But Mingyu knew him better than that, "Come on Won, you can tell me," he said as he walked closer to Wonwoo.

"Seriously, it's nothing. Classes are just stressing me out, and I'm just really tired," Wonwoo said, giving in.

Mingyu frowned at the other, his eyes full of worry. "Well I guess I'll just have to relieve you of your stress then," he said as he leaned towards Wonwoo and gave him a cheeky smile.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes as he pushed Mingyu's face away, "I don't need that right now, I just need some sleep. You know, after I write this three page essay for my English teacher."

Mingyu's smile fell and a frown replaced it again, "Nope, as your official one and only best friend, it is my duty to at least relieve of stress you for the next five minutes." Mingyu's eyes widened as an idea popped into his head. He then started smirking. He had on that smirk. The one that Wonwoo was all too familiar with. It was the smirk that said "There is no way in Hell that you can stop what I'm about to do."

"Oh no, please, don't," Wonwoo pleaded with him as Mingyu pulled out his phone. 

Mingyu flashed him that gorgeous smile of his as he tried to comfort the other, "Calm down! I'm not going to do anything outrageous. Lighten up a bit!"

He then pressed something on his phone and music started to play. Wonwoo immediately recognized the song and buried his head in his pillow and groaned to himself.

"The snow glows white on the mountain tonight, not a footprint to be seen," Mingyu sang dramatically as he stood up, clutching his heart. "A kingdom of isolation...and it looks like I'm the King!" Mingyu sang, winking at Wonwoo who had peeked at him as he lifted his head up slightly from the pillow.

"The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside. Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried." 

"Mingyu, please stop. You're killing me, stop," Wonwoo pleaded with the younger.

Mingyu just shook his head as he continued singing and dramatically acted out a scene, "Don't let them in, don't let them see! Be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal, don't feel, don't let them knooooow! Well now they KNOOW!"

Mingyu then took Wonwoo's hand as he pulled him off of the bed as he belted out the words to the song, "LET IT GOOO! LET IT GOOO! CAN'T HOLD IT BACK ANYMOOORE!" 

"Mingyu, oh my god, stop!" Wonwoo laughed out as the other started twirling around in his room.

"LET IT GOOO! LET IT GOOO! Turn away and slam the DOOOOR!" Mingyu sang as he jumped onto Wonwoo's bed.

"I. DON'T. CARE. What they're going to say!" Mingyu then jumped off the bed over to Wonwoo who was busy laughing his face off. "Let the storm rage on!" He sang as he slipped his hands around Wonwoo's waist and pulled him closer shocking Wonwoo who immediately turned stiff in Mingyu's grip.

"The cold never bothered me anyways," Mingyu whispered into his ear, smirking as he held Wonwoo in his arms and tilted him back a little as if they were a couple dancing and it was the ending pose.

Wonwoo froze in Mingyu's arms, eyes wide as he put a hand around Mingyu's neck to keep him from falling onto the ground. Mingyu's eyes were playful as he stared into the older's, still holding onto Wonwoo when the song stopped. Wonwoo regained his footing and put a hand to Mingyu's chest as he gently pushed the other away, blushing like crazy and thanking any God out there that neither of them had bothered to turn on the light in his room, only the light in the hallway was illuminating the room. 

"Thanks, Gyu. I needed that," Wonwoo smiled, grateful for the younger who had lifted his spirits.  
Mingyu smiled back at him. "It's what what I do," he said as he gave Wonwoo another wink and received an eyeroll from the older in return. "Now go get on writing that essay that I know you'll ace," Mingyu encouraged him as he walked out the door, leaving Wonwoo blushing in his room.  
  
*end of flashback*

Wonwoo sighed to himself, mentally facepalming himself for thinking of Mingyu again. Before Wonwoo could think about Mingyu further, he heard the door cream open.

Wonwoo looked over to find a pretty woman with light, brown hair in the door way. She had a white lab coat on, so he assumed it was his therapist/doctor Dr.Kwangji had told him about.  
The woman walked into the room carrying a clipboard and sat down in the chair beside Wonwoo's bed. "Hello, I'm Kim Chaewon, Dr.Chaewon. I'm you're therapist and doctor here," the woman said to him, giving him a friendly smile. 

"I'm Wonwoo..." 

"Oh, yes I know," she said, still smiling at him. "So, we've already diagnosed you with severe depression and suicidal tendencies. You seem to have stayed clear of self harm, other than that one attempt, so curing you will be a much faster process than if you had," she informed him as she read off of the clipboard.

"Curing me? There is no curing. As long as Mingyu is dead, nothing will be the same," Wonwoo spat at her, offended by how she thought that she just give him some pills or something and he'd be fine, like that would bring Mingyu back. 

Dr.Chaewon looked tooken back for a second, but then spoke, choosing her words carefully, "I know. There is no cure to depression or...death. It's not something that can just disappear. But I'm here to provide the help you need to make it easier."

Wonwoo rolled his eyes. The woman seemed nice enough and genuinely seemed like she wanted to help him, but despite her being a therapist, she didn't understand . No one really did. "Listen, I don't want to kill myself if that's what you're concerned about. I don't need to be here. There are plenty of other people out who are getting help and don't need to be in an asylum for god sake."

"I'm sorry, but your guardian insisted that you be treated here. We can't let you go without consent from your guardian," his therapist explained.

Wonwoo sighed. "Then can I please talk to my mom on the phone?" Wonwoo asked.

Dr.Chaewon bit her lip in thought and then slowly nodded her head as she hesitantly got up to undo the straps tying him down. "I'm trusting you that you won't do anything irrational."  
Wonwoo nodded as she removed the leather cuffs from his wrists and ankles. He slowly rubbed his wrists once they were free that had started to bruise. 

"Sorry they were so tight, you are very...active in your sleep," Dr.Chaewon apologized after glancing at his wrists. 

Wonwoo felt his wrists. They felt empty something was missing. Wait.... "Where's my bracelet?" Wonwoo asked as he looked up at the doctor. 

Dr.Chaewon gave him a confused look in return. "My bracelets. I always wear it. It's golden, has a heart charm on with with "FML" written on it," Wonwoo explained.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know what more talking about, the people at the hospital probably have that, or maybe your guardian has it," she told the frantic boy.

Wonwoo bit his lip nervously, his wrist felt empty and it felt so wrong. 

"Here's some clothes you can wear other than that paper gown," she said as she handed him some clothes and excused herself from the room. After changing into the white long sleeved shirt and grey sweat pants and slipping on some white tennis shoes, Wonwoo opened the door. Dr.Chaewon was standing outside, waiting for him and lead him down the hallway. The hallway had the same strong smell of old paint and had dirty white walls and tan coloured floors.

In the hallways there were some security guards strolling through and glanced at Wonwoo from time to time. Dr.Chaewon lead him to one of the phones that hung on the wall. "Here you go," she said as she motioned towards the phone. 

Wonwoo mumbled thanks as he dialed his mother's phone number. The phone rang for a few seconds before his mother picked up. "Hello?" Wonwoo heard her voice on the other end ask. She sounded tired.

"Mom, it's me," Wonwoo answered.

"Wonwoo! Oh my sweet boy! Are you doing ok? Do you feel any better?" His mother asked him in a worried voice. 

"Yes, but why did you send me here, to SM Asylum?" Wonwoo asked, not patient enough to go through small talk.

He could hear his mother swallow before explaining to him, "Wonwoo, you don't know how hard it was for me to make a choice to do that. You didn't wake up until two days after being hospitalized. I was so worried, Won. I sent you there so you could get the help you need. Away from school and away from places that remind you of...him. I already lost your father, Wonwoo. I'm not going to lose you."

Wonwoo heard his mother's voice break at the end. "But mom, I-" Wonwoo started to protest.

"No, Wonwoo. There's no but's. You're staying there and getting the help you need, ok. I love you Won, that's why I'm doing this," his mother interrupted before hanging up the phone.

Wonwoo pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it and then sighed as he hung the phone back into the wall. He turned around to face his doctor who just shrugged at him with sympathetic eyes. 

"Wait here for a second," she said before she walked off down the hallway. Wonwoo just stood there in silence, thinking over what his mom had said to him. Maybe he did need help. He ought to at least give this a shot, not that he had a choice anyways. Wonwoo sighed again to himself.  
He heard footsteps and voices behind him. Wonwoo turned around and found Dr.Chaewon walking towards him with another brown haired girl. Wonwoo looked closer at the new girl. Something was familiar about her.

"Jess, is that you?" he hesitantly asked.

The brown haired girly eyes widened as she realized who he was, "Wonwoo?!"

Dr.Chaewon raised an eyebrow as she asked them, "You two know each other?"

Jessica nodded her head, "Ya, we went to high school together," she explained. 

Dr.Chaewon's mouth formed a silent 'o' as she nodded her head. "Well, Jessica will be showing you your room and around here, ok," she said to Wonwoo. 

"Ok," Wonwoo said as the doctor walked away. He then turned towards Jessica again saying, "It's great to see you again, Jess. Well not necessarily here in this place, you know what I mean."

"Same! I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" Jessica exclaimed. 

"Why are you here though?" Wonwoo questioned.

"Well..." Jessica hesitantly said, "My family runs a really big business, I was meant to take over it and stuff after I got out of college, but I never really wanted to do that, so my parents threw me in here because I'm a disgrace to the family name and want to blame it on a nonexistent mental disease instead of believing that I have...had other plans."

"Oh, that sucks," Wonwoo said as he looked down at the floor. He was never really good with words.

"Why are you here?" Jessica asked.

"I-uh...." Wonwoo started, unsure if he was ready to talk about it. "Min...Mingyu's....he's dead," Wonwoo managed to whisper. 

Jessica's eyes widened in shock, "What? How?"

"There was a...school shooting...He died because of me." Since Mingyu's death, Wonwoo knew that he was to blame. If he just held his stupid bladder, Mingyu wouldn't have come after him. Mingyu would've been alive. That guilt had been eating him alive. It was his fault that Mingyu was dead. No matter how hard he tried to reason with himself, he knew that Mingyu was dead because if him.

Jessica looked at him in confusion, "What do you mean he died because of you?"

Wonwoo took a deep breathe, trying to calm himself, "I had gone to the bathroom when the principal announced there was a school shooting to the classrooms. Mingyu went out to warn me. We hid in a closet before the shooter went into a classroom and fired his gun. Mingyu went out of the closet to save the other students.... If I hadn't gone to the bathroom, Mingyu would still be alive today..."

Jessica frowned as she put a hand on Wonwoo's shoulder. "That's not your fault. Mingyu died saving people. He died saving you. That is in no way you're fault, Wonwoo," Jessica told him.  
That was what Wonwoo tried to tell himself everyday, but he knew it wasn't true. He knew he was the one who truly killed Mingyu.

"No...no...I... It's my fault," Wonwoo cried out as tears began spilling out of his eyes. "It's all my fault, if I had just stayed put, he wouldn't have died!" 

Jessica pulled him into a hug, arms wrapping around his neck as she tried to soothe him, reminding him of that nice police woman at the school, "No, no, no. Wonwoo, don't blame yourself. You couldn't have done anything. It was his choice to save you guys. You can't blame yourself for that. He did what he thought was right. Things like this happen for a reason, Won. Please don't blame yourself for this."

Wonwoo began to calm down as his he willed his tears to go away. Even though he didn't believe his old friend, he didn't argue with her and Jessica pulled away from him and took his hand as she lead him down the hallway. 

"Let me show you around, ok. You up for that?" 

"Ya, sure."

Jessica lead him down the hallway and they took a left into a large room where there were lots of other people sitting at tables, eating food. "This is the cafeteria. The food is shit, but you'll get used to it," Jessica told him as she lead him to a table to the far right.

The two stood be of a table of nine people. A boy with brown, curled hair noticed the two first. "Who's this, Jess?" he asked as the table suddenly got quiet and the rest of the people turned to look at the two. 

"This is Wonwoo. He's new here. Play nice boys or you'll end up with another hour added to your required time for therapy sessions," Jessica warned the group before sitting down in a seat and pulling Wonwoo down next to her. 

A boy in front of him narrowed his eyes at Jessica and sneered.

The curly brown haired boy lightly hit the other on the arm as he told the other to chill. "Name's Suho," the browned haired boy said offering a hand to Wonwoo to shake. The two shook hands and Suho introduced to Wonwoo the rest of the boys at the table. 

"This is Baekhyun, he's a bitch sometimes, but you'll get used to it," Suho said as he motioned towards the one who sneered at Jessica. He had brown hair with red streaks in it and hair styled like a mullet. 

"That's Chanyeol," Suho gestured to the boy sitting next to Baekhyun who had silver, and light blue and pink hair that resembled cotton candy. 

"And this is Kyungsoo, but he likes to be called D.O, and that's Jongin." D.O had brown hair and seemed a bit shy while Jongin had braided dark brown hair.

"That's Jongdae, this is Minseok, and that's Yixing." Jongdae had feathery blonde hair, while Minseok had dark, black hair parted in the middle, and Yixing as well had black hair.

"And that's Sehun," Suho finished gesturing towards the guy with orange hair. 

"Hi..." Wonwoo said quietly, not sure how to greet the others who were more than likely mentally unstable.

"Ok, well, we should get going. It's getting late and I was just showing Wonwoo around," Jessica told Suho as she stood up from her seat. 

Suho shrugged and turned his attention back over to the others as Wonwoo stood up too and followed Jessica out of the room. "Those are my friends. I have used to have a group of girls I used to hang out with, but they kicked me out..." Jessica explained as they walked down the hallway.

"Ok."

"Right now we're going to the main room," Jessica told him as they took a right down another hallway. They turned another corner and Wonwoo soon became worried he'd get lost in here. They turned again into a large room. It had two tv's hung up on the wall and an old, brown leather coach. To the right were a few tables and chairs and a bookshelf. There were only a pair of two guys in the back of that were in the room. "Usually during the day there's a lot more people in here," Jessica told him. Wonwoo took a final look around the room before they both turned around into the hallway again.

"We're heading to you room now." The two took a few turns before coming to a hallway with rows of doors with numbers on them. "You're number seventy-two," Jessica told him as they walked down the hallway and stopped at a door with the number 72 engraved in the steel.

She opened the door to a tiny room. It was barely able to fit a bed in there to the left and to the right was a small sink. "Home sweet home," Jessica said. 

"Uhuh," Wonwoo muttered as he observed the room. 

"The doors lock after 9pm, if you're caught out afterwards well, nothing really happens. Just make sure you use the bathroom down the other hallway before going to bed," Jessica explained. 

"Ok, thanks, for everything," Wonwoo said as he turned towards her.  
Jessica smiled at him and said, "No problem," before she stepped out of the door. "You should get some sleep now," she said over her shoulder and left him alone in his new room.

Wonwoo shut the metal door and sat on the bed, trying to process everything. After a few seconds he gave up on trying to figure anything out and took off his shoes before he got up and turned off the light. Wonwoo climbed into bed and pulled the covers over his head as he fell asleep thinking of Mingyu and how he had held him close and protected him that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a short chapter this time, from now on I'm going to try to write 4500+ word chapters, I just ended up writing this in two nights, so it's not that long. Haha, and you thought there would be a Meanie reunion, NOPE! Sorry guys, I got other plans XD Don't worry though, there will be a Meanie reunion eventually, Idk how soon, but eventually :D I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I got inspired when I watched the series Iron Fist and there was an episode where he got went to a psychiatric ward and stuff. So yeah. We got Minkyun and Kwangji from No Mercy here, we got Kim Chaewon from April, because I fricking love that girl, and we got Jessica from SNSD and EXO (and for all you newbies, Jongdae is Chen, Minseok is Xiumin and Yixing is Lay). So like lemme explain that everyone here is either from No Mercy, is Kim Chaewon, or is from SM Entertainment because SM is crazy man. It won't be EVERYONE from SM, but the main people there will be from SM. Also, I described the Exo members as they are now in their The War teasers, so yeppp, crazy hair guys. Updates may not be as frequent since school is starting in about a month, but I'll definitely still continue to write. Look forward to future drabbles of other groups and stuff and comment down below if you enjoyed and what ships you'd want me to write about :3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be a mess because I'm a mess right now and am gorging myself on angsty fanfictions and like making myself sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not completely sure if any of you guys liked chapter six, a lot of you expected a Meanie reunion, but that didn't happen, so like idk man, I got plans but Idk if y'all will like them, but then again, I'm writing this just because I want to and am hoping y'all will like it to. Okkkk, enough rambling, I hope you enjoy this chapter. This chapter's title was based off of Sophiya's song- Therapy, lol XD

Wonwoo woke up to the strong smell of paint once again. Old, moldy, nasty paint. Wonwoo rubbed his eyes as he sat up, remembering everything that had happened the day before. "Shit, this is actually real," Wonwoo thought to himself as he sat in his small twin sized bed, which by the way, not the most luxurious nor comfortable thing you'd like to sleep on. Wonwoo amazed himself with how he had managed to fall asleep on that thing.  


Wonwoo closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. "You can do this, just behave, pretend everything's alright and they'll let you go soon and things can go back to the way they were before," Wonwoo said out loud, giving himself a pep talk for the day. He opened his eyes to find Jessica leaning against the door way smirking with her arms crossed.  


"Ya, keeping telling yourself that and maybe you just might not go insane here," Jessica said as she pushed herself off of the door and walked towards him.  


Wonwoo felt his face heat up in embarrassment knowing that she had heard him. "I'm just teasing you," Jessica smiled as she sat down beside him on the bed, "Besides, I've been here for three years, not all of us go crazy here."  


Wonwoo frowned, still not convinced that he could make it in this place. "Plus if anyone here can make it out, it's you. You only attempted once and have never self harmed, your decision seemed out of impulse, and the only reason you're here is because of your mom. If you can convince your therapist you're better, she can tell your mom your fine and you can go home," Jessica pointed out. "At least you have a chance of getting out, I'm stuck here for forever," she continued bitterly.  


Wonwoo didn't think of that. How long Jessica had been here and how she would never be let go, to truly see the world and experience new things. She would never be able to have a normal life. He then felt bad for thinking so selfishly and so he took Jessica's hand and squeezed it gently to show her how grateful he was for everything she was doing for him.  


Jessica smiled at him in return. "Here, we should get going, breakfast is almost over, but I can convince Seulgi to let us in to the back," she said as she stood up from the bed. Wonwoo slipped on his shoes before following Jessica out the door.  


Jessica lead him back to the cafeteria where there were only a few groups of people still left.

"Come on," Jessica said as she took his wrist and pulled him to the lunch line. 

A lunch lady with brown, curly hair pulled back by a hair net, who couldn't be much older than himself, stood behind the counter. Her eyes lit up when she saw Jessica and Wonwoo approach her. "Jess! You didn't come by last night for dinner," the girl said as she pouted.  


Jessica chuckled. "Babe, I was just showing Wonwoo around, he's new here," Jessica said, trying to reassure the other.  


Seulgi's eyes widened when she heard Wonwoo's name, "You mean high school friend Wonwoo?"  
Jessica nodded her head in response. Seulgi turned her head towards Wonwoo. "How did you end up here?" she asked, addressing Wonwoo.  


Before Wonwoo could answer, Jessica told the other, "It's early, babe, give him a break, he hasn't eaten in a while." Seulgi narrowed her eyes as she gave Jessica a look that said "We're going to talk about this later," and then told them to go around the counter to the back where they had more food since the majority of the food laid out at the counter was gone.  


"Thanks," Wonwoo whispered to Jessica, appreciating her stepping in so he wouldn't have to relive those memories of Mingyu again in his mind.  


"Here you guys, don't tell the others about this, they'll get upset that you guys got the real food," Seulgi laughed as she handed them two trays of food and gave them a warning glare.  


"We won't," Wonwoo laughed as they walked out of the back room. When they were out of the other's earshot, Wonwoo looked to his friend and asked her, "Babe?"  


Jessica looked back at him and smirked, "Ya, you're not the only one who turned out to be gay."  


Wonwoo's eyes widened in surprise, "I never told you I was gay."  


Jessica rolled her eyes as they walked down to the same table they insisted yesterday where the nine other boys were. "You didn't think I knew you were head over heels for Mingyu when we were in high school?"  


Wonwoo frowned as he thought over it, "Was I really that obvious?"  


"Painfully. But Mingyu was too much of an idiot to realise it."  


Wonwoo stared down at his food, hoping something would just spring out of his Mac and cheese and kill him right then and there.  


"Anyways, Ya, Seulgi's my girlfriend. I'm not sure why she thought it was a good idea to ask out someone 'diagnosed' as mentally unstable and would never be able to leave here, but she did. I couldn't be more grateful to have her in my life. She's probably the only thing that's kept me sane here for so long," Jessica said as she smiled a bit to herself.  


Wonwoo smiled at his friend, happy she had found happiness in a place like this.  


"Move over," Jessica said to one of the boys he remembered to be Sehun. He moved down a few seats and Jessica and Wonwoo sat down with the nine other boys.  


The boy across from Jessica named Suho raised an eyebrow at her before asking, "What got you in such a pissy mood?"  


The boy to the right of Suho, Jongdae, scoffed as he answered before Jessica, "She's always in a pissy mood, what are you talking about?"  


Jessica glared at the blonde haired boy before she reached over to his tray and snatched up a golden roll. "Yaaahhh!" Jongdae yelled at her before he quickly shut his mouth when Jessica gave him what Wonwoo liked to call, The Death Glare.  


"Mine," she said shortly.  


"But you already got the good food from Seulgi!" Jongdae whined. Jessica continued to glare at him as she took a bite out of the roll.  


Suho rolled his eyes at the other before he handed Jongdae his roll without saying a word. Jongdae's eyes lit up as he took the roll and hugged his friend.  


The boy next to Wonwoo named Jongin sat beside him. Today he didn't have his braids in and his hair was smooth and shiny. He narrowed his eyes at Wonwoo as he reached for his face. Wonwoo flinched back as the other tried to lift his chin up. "What's that from?" he questioned as he motioned towards the light cut on Wonwoo's neck.  


Wonwoo reached up to feel his neck before answering the other, "This kid, I think his name was Minkyun, tried to...well slit my throat with a knife yesterday, so he kinda nicked me there."  


"Ahhh, Minkyun with the brown curly hair and small face?" Minseok to the left of him asked. Wonwoo nodded. "Aish, he's a nutcase. He's bipolar and has multiple personality disorder. He keeps getting his hands on random knifes, we don't really know where he gets them," Minseok informed him as he shrugged his shoulders.  


"Oh, nice," Wonwoo answered as he took a bite out of his Mac and Cheese which was not all that disappointing. He looked up at Minseok as he asked the other, "What about you? Why are you here? If you don't mind me asking of course."  


Minseok just smiled at him and waved him off as he told the other, "I have severe anxiety, as most people here do, and I'm anorexic and bulimic. I got so bad at one point to where I passed out in the bathroom after puking and my family finally got fed up and sent me here."  


"Oh, I'm sorry," Wonwoo said as he frowned a bit.  


Minseok waved him off again as he said, "There's nothing to be sorry about. At least I'm getting help here I guess, plus I'm much better off than some of the people here.  


"Sehun has Conversion disorder and continuous seizures, Baekhyun has multiple personality disorder as well, Chanyeol has a depersonalization disorder, Jongdae has kleptomania, which means he has impulses to steal, his parents got fed up with him, so they sent him here, Suho has extreme PTSD, insomnia, and nightmare disorder, Jongin has narcolepsy, Yixing has paranoid personality disorder, and Kyungsoo has pica disorder which means he likes to eat shit that's not supposed to be eaten. He also has anger management issues, but that's not important."  


Wonwoo squinted his eyes as he tried to digest all the information, not really quite sure of what half these disorders actually were. His thought process was interrupted by Jongin who softly asked him, "Why are you here then?"  


Wonwoo looked over to his friend, Jessica, not sure if he should tell the others his story. She looked back at him and gave him an encouraging look. Wonwoo too a deep breathe before answering the other. "My friend died in a school shooting...and I...attempted to overdose, but obviously that didn't go as planned. Dr.Chaewon said I have severe depression and suicidal tendencies, but the only real reason why I'm here is because my mom sent me."  


"Aishhh, you're so lucky! You'll be out of here in no time!" The one who was called D,O or Kyungsoo said as his bottom lip stuck out when he pouted.  


Jessica slapped him on the shoulder as she scolded him, "Aish, don't be so insensitive. Speak for yourself! You just gotta learn to take real food down and tone down that anger if yours and you'll be out of here too!"  


Kyungsoo cowered away from her as he mumbled, "You're usually the insensitive one," under his breathe. 

Wonwoo heard a voice behind him call out, "Jeon Wonwoo!" Wonwoo turned around in his seat and there was a security guard at the far left end of the room calling out his name.  
Jessica leaned over towards him as she told the other, "It's probably just Dr.Chaewon and your therapy sessions."  


"Oh, fun," Wonwoo mumbled out before he stood up and walked over to the guard. The security guard said nothing as he lead Wonwoo down the hallways to another room. The guard opened the door and Wonwoo walked in before the guard closed the door behind him.  


The room was relatively small and was dimly lit. The only light source illuminating the room was a lamp that stood next to where Dr.Chaewon sat. There was a few bookshelves to the right and a couch that was in front where Dr.Chaewon was sitting. She had her brown hair up in a bun and motioned for Wonwoo to sit down as she smiled at him.  


Wonwoo walked over to the couch and sat down, unsure of himself.  


Dr.Chaewon cleared her voice before talking, "So we'll have therapy sessions every other day, each will be about an hour long, but if you do ever feel like you need to talk to me, you can always come get me anytime," she said, still smiling. "For the today's session and the next couple, I just want to be able to get to know you and so you can trust me, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, unless it's something that's putting you or others into danger."  
Wonwoo blinked a few times, not sure what to say.  


Dr.Chaewon must have noticed this and then asked him, "So today I just want to know some basic information, what are you hobbies, What's your family like, how well do you do in school, that kind of stuff."

Wonwoo felt a bit conflicted, not sure if he should comply with this lady or not. She seemed nice enough, her excessive smiling was annoying, but she seemed genuine. Wonwoo sighed, he should at least do this for his mother and brother. Wonwoo felt guilty for attempting to leave them on their own, especially since they already lost dad. He should at least do this for them.  


"Uh, well I'm a junior in college. I have a brother named Bohyuk and my mom," Wonwoo told her, finally giving in.  


"Oh, what about your father, if you don't mind me asking. You don't have to tell me, some patients get sensitive talking about certain family members," Dr.Chaewon said.  


Wonwoo hesitated a bit before he answered, "He died when during my sophomore year in high school. He...hung himself."  


Dr.Chaewon gave him a sympathetic look but didn't look all that shocked. Wonwoo supposed she had dealt with stuff like that on the regular. "Well, could you tell me what he was like before he passed away?"  


Wonwoo nervously chewed on his lips. He had never really talked about this with anyone, not even with Mingyu really. As much as Mingyu told him about his family and his mother's weekly problems and outburst, Wonwoo barely ever talked about his family, much less his father. 

"I...Uh, he was a hard worker. He spent most of his time traveling for work so we didn't really see him that often. But even when he came home late, he would always muster up enough energy to play with Bohyuk and I when we were kids. He used to be everything I aspired to be. He was hard working and responsible, kind, loving, confident, and the best father anyone could ask for."  


Wonwoo was staring at the floor and his shoes as he talked and lifted his head after he finished, and Dr.Chaewon gave him an encouraging look to continue.  


"But everything changed. He came home less and less, we were lucky to see him a few times a month. Mom and him fought more, but it was never that serious, they'd always make up by morning. He became more and more tired, never really had time for us. And then mom broke it off with him. She wanted a divorce. Dad never saw it coming. Bohyuk and I did, but not Dad. He quickly turned into a wreck, didn't even come home from business trips. I'm pretty sure he had an alcohol addiction as well. And so he just snapped, he didn't think anything in this world was worth living for anymore and he...took his life."  


"Do you remember the day it happened?" Dr.Chaewon asked, choosing her words carefully.  


Wonwoo stared at the ground again. It felt odd, opening up his memories and feelings he had shut off and stuffed far away. For the first time in a while he felt vulnerable. "...Yah...it was the first time Mingyu and I actually talked. I had failed a math test that day and had been beaten by some jocks. After they left, I got a call from my mom when I was sitting in front of my locker, trying to hold everything back. I don't know how, but I knew my mom was calling about something urgent. So I answered my phone. My mom was on the other line, sobbing as she told me that dad was in the hospital and tried to hang himself. She told me she couldn't pick me up, so just had to stay at school for a while. After she hung up I burst into tears. I curled up in a ball and cried in the hallways, I couldn't feel the pain of the bruises anymore, I couldn't feel anything but the pain in my chest as I dry heaved and hyperventilated. There was barely anyone left still at school. Except... Mingyu. He stood in front of me and offered out a hand. I rejected it at first, but he continued to stand there and didn't leave until I finally took his hand. He lead me to his car and he drove me to the hospital. He ended up giving me a matching bracelet that day. It was meant for his ex girlfriend, but he gave it to me."  


Wonwoo took a deep breathe before continuing on. "When I got to the hospital, my mom was waiting in the lobby. She was holding onto Bohyuk tightly. When she noticed I was there, she rushed up to me and hugged me as she sobbed onto my shoulder. We waited for hours into the night, hoping the doctors could save him. But when the doctors came out, they told us that there was too much brain damage done and the only thing keeping him alive was the machine. They said his condition was only getting worse and that we should say our goodbyes then, before he passed. When we walked into his room, he was lying on a bed, hooked up to this machine. He...his face was purple and blue. His neck was swollen from where he had tried to hang himself..." Wonwoo shuddered as he pictured it in his mind again. That image of his father used to haunt him every night afterwards. "My mom couldn't really say anything that night, she blames herself for his death. So does dad's parents. They tried to steal Bohyuk and I away from mom once actually. But anyways, I ended up saying a goodbye for all of us that night."  


Wonwoo kept his eyes on the floor when he heard Dr.Chaewon softly speak, "What was life like after his death?"  


"It was...different. I had to step up for my mom and brother. I had to get a a few jobs to help support the family since mom didn't make that much either. I didn't cry after the day he died. I couldn't. I had to stay strong. If I cried, Bohyuk would've known everything was falling to pieces.... I had to work harder at school, I needed a scholarship. No scholarship, no college. So I worked my ass off. I never gave myself time to dwell over my feelings. I just kind of stuffed them in the corner and put up a brave front for my family...," Wonwoo admitted, his hands shaking, not used to the empty feeling on his wrist and that he couldn't play with his bracelet like he usually does when he's nervous.  


"Well, I don't want you to feel like you ever need to do that again. Don't stuff your feelings up, you need to let them out sometimes," Dr.Chaewon told him.  


Wonwoo nodded his head as he realised that maybe he did need to let out his feelings sometimes. His whole life he had learned to just deal with it, to put up a brave front for others so they wouldn't have to worry about him, to be the one they could lean on. Maybe that's why him and Mingyu became such good friends. He never felt that he had to be strong in front of Mingyu. He needed someone to lean on and Mingyu was that person. And that was one if the reasons why Mingyu's death hit him like a brick. Without Mingyu there was no one there for him, to support him and be there when he cried and when he was vulnerable.  


The rest of the hour they steered away from the depressing topics and talked about Wonwoo's interests in rap and music and his other hobbies like reading. Wonwoo didn't notice the time fly by until Dr.Chaewon's alarm on her phone started to go, signaling that their therapy session was over.  


Dr.Chaewon stood up as she said, "Today was good. You opened up about your father, and I think I'm getting to know you a lot better."  


"Ya, it actually wasn't that bad," Wonwoo admitted with a smile. He expected her to try to force him to talk about Mingyu and his downwards spiral after that, but she never pressed him and he actually felt much better after finally opening up to someone about his father, like an invisible weight was lifted.  


The two said goodbye as Wonwoo left the room and Dr.Chaewon called a security guard inside to bring another patient for another meeting.  


Wonwoo walked down the hallways, not really sure where to go now. He didn't know the place all that well and there were so many corners and turns he didn't know where to go. Before his panic could rise any further, he saw D.O walking down the hallways and Wonwoo jogged after him to catch up to the other.  


"Hey," Wonwoo said as he caught up to the other.  


D.O glanced over at him and said, "Hey," as he turned his attention back to the front as the two walked down the hallway.  


Wonwoo could tell D.O didn't talk much. He didn't seem shy really, just quiet. "Um, I'm actually really confused about where to go and if we like...have to do anything for the rest of the day," Wonwoo confessed to the other.  


"We don't really do anything here. After therapy sessions, you just hang around in your room or the main room for the rest of the time. Sometimes they perform a few tests on you to make sure your health is good and stuff, but that's about it," D.O answered him, not sparing him another glance as he kept his head forward.  


"Ohh, that sounds a bit boring though, don't you think," Wonwoo said, trying to initiated a conversation between them.  


D.O shrugged, "You kind if loose track of time here. I usually take a few naps during the day to pass time sometimes."  


"Oh, well where are you headed now?" Wonwoo asked, a little embarrassed that he didn't know his away around here and the only reason he was still following D.O was because he didn't know where to go.  


"To the main room. Jongin hates it when I leave him alone for too long, he says he can't stay awake unless I'm near him."  


Wonwoo raised an eyebrow, confused, and as if D.O could feel the eyebrow raise, he explained to the other, "Jongin has narcolepsy, it's a chronic sleep disorder that causes overwhelming daytime drowsiness. It's hard for him to stay awake most if the time. He can't really function in the real world, so he's here now."  


"Ahhh," Wonwoo said as he understood the other and continued walking with D.O.  


After a few moments of silence, D.O told Wonwoo, "I'm sorry about your friend," out of the blue.  
Wonwoo glanced over at D.O before he stared down at the floor. When ever he felt uncomfortable he couldn't look up, too afraid of the looks others would give him. "Ya, me too..." was all Wonwoo could say to the other.  


D.O then randomly stopped walking and Wonwoo stopped too, beside him. D.O finally looked up at him and looked into his eyes for the first time, "I lost a friend once in a car accident," D.O admitted to him.  


Wonwoo's eyes widened a bit, surprised by D.O's sudden confession. "Oh, I'm sorry," Wonwoo finally said.  


"She was my best friend. We were going on a road trip during the summer. I was trying to change the radio when we crashed. She died on impact. My anger management issues didn't help with anything. I would blow up on anyone who tried to help me. My friend was the only one I ever opened up to and she was the one who helped me through my pica disorder. My parents sent me here because I refused to get help on my own. I blame myself for her death. She haunts me at night sometimes. Don't let that happen to you. Don't blame yourself for someone's death, that's not what they would want," the shorter told him.  


Wonwoo stood still as he was a bit shocked and overwhelmed by the other's confession. "O-ok," Wonwoo finally said and D.O turned away from him and continued walking down the hallway to the main room.

Wonwoo followed silently, thinking about what D.O had said. "How did he know that he blamed himself for Mingyu's death? Did Jess tell him?" Wonwoo thought to himself. Before his thoughts could continue on, D.O and Wonwoo took another left into the main room.  


Wonwoo followed D.O to a table where Jongin, Yixing, and Sehun were. "Kyungsoo! It took you forever to get here! Do you know how many times Jongin has almost fallen asleep on me and how much he frickin drools?" Yixing exclaimed as he pushed Jongin over a bit who was leaning his head against Yixing's shoulder.  


D.O chuckled a little before he apologized and pulled Jongin over to him who then decided to rest his head onto D.O's shoulder instead.  


Wonwoo looked over to Sehun, not quiet sure if D.O and Jongin were just friends or more. Sehun seemed to notice and read his mind when he told him, "D.O and Jongin are the most disgustingly cute couple you'll ever find."  


Wonwoo laughed at Sehun's comment before he asked the other, "Is it normal to have relationships and stuff here, you know with people being mentally unstable and stuff."

"Nah, tons of people are dating, or whatever you'd like to call it, here. It kinda helps, knowing there's someone here to be with you and share your pain. Like Chanyeol and Baekhyun are together, Kris and Tao together, and so are Luhan and Minseok, there's Seokwon, who's a guard by the way, and Yoonho, and of course Jessica and Seulgi. I'm not sure about anyone else here, but that's all I know in our friend group," Sehun explained.  


"Is anyone like actually straight here? Not like trying to be rude here," Wonwoo asked, not seeing any straight couple here yet.  


Sehun raised his hand silently which cause both Yixing and Wonwoo to laugh as Sehun glared at the two. "I mean Suho are Jongdae are busy banging each other, but I'm pretty sure they're both straight," Yixing told him after they had finally stopped laughing.  


"What, you feel the gay vibes from everyone influencing and attacking your heterosexuality?" Sehun joked.  


"Haha, too late for that, man," Wonwoo said, hinting that he too was gay. It felt weird though, to be surrounded by gay people. Not that there was anything wrong with them, Wonwoo had just been closeted his whole life and it was odd to him to just talk about it openly. But it was also refreshing at the same time, to not feel paranoid that someone would find out and try to make his life a living Hell based on who he liked.  


Surprisingly Wonwoo felt comfortable with these people. Yixing was a bit quiet and hesitant to speak due to his paranoid personality disorder, but he was nice. They were all really nice. He felt included for once. At college he didn't have that many friends, only Mingyu really. It felt good to have people to talk to, who weren't judgmental and were accepting, sure they might've been a little crazy and messed up in the brain, but you know, they were all screwed up together. "Maybe it isn't so bad here," Wonwoo thought to himself and continued to laugh and smile with his new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you're web history is now filled disorder websites and information and your parents wonder wtf is wrong with you XD God, it took forever to research for this chapter. If you don't know what some of these disordersWhen you're web history is now filled disorder websites and information and your parents wonder wtf is wrong with you XD God, it took forever to research for this chapter. If you don't know what some of these disorders are, I recommend you research about them so you'll understand some of the character's tendencies and stuff. Also, I don't really ship Jessica and Seulgi, but like paired them together because why not, lol XD Sorry no meanie again in this chapter, but I swear there will be a Meanie reunion soon, it just may be a different reunion you thought it'd be like. I'll be trying to update every week from now on, it won't be as frequent as before, especially since school is around the corner :[] Hope you liked the chapter, please comment down below your thoughts and stuff, it always helps and I hope y'all have a fabulous day! <3  
> 


	8. Relationships and Ghost Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a couple of weeks of school, Mingyu is finally getting the hang of things here, but he realizes there may be a way to go back to Earth....

"So, will you?" 

Mingyu sat on the edge of his bunk bed, the rest of his roommates stared at him, waiting for an answer. Mingyu had no doubt in his mind, these were his friends here, the first people to accept him into their group. They may not know everything about him, but they were his best friends, which was quiet amazing considering fact he had only known them for a week. 

Mingyu looked up, into Seungcheol's eyes, the one who had asked the question, "Of course!" Mingyu finally answered. 

The rest of the guild's faces lit up as some began to holler and cheer. A large smile formed on Seungcheol's face, "Great! I'll tell Kyuhyun that Kim Mingyu is now a permanent member of the guild, Seventeen!" he shouted loudly above the rest of the members.

Hansol came over to Mingyu's bed and sat next to him as he wrapped his arm around Mingyu's shoulders and gave him a side hug with a huge smile on his face. From the bunk above, Jun chucked an red apple at Mingyu, who fumbled with the fruit, barely able to catch it. Hansol immediately shrunk away, squealing in fear as he fell of the bed. The rest of the guild burst into fits of laughter, their happiness so infectious that even Hansol began laughing on the floor as he started cursing out the blue haired vampire. 

Jihoon felt his phone vibrate next to him. He looked down at it and saw someone, was calling him. "Shut up, you idiots!" Jihoon screamed at the guild as he tried to quiet them down. Once he was satisfied, he answered the phone. 

The whole guild waited in silence, afraid from Jihoon's yelling that something bad had happened. "WHAT?!" Jihoon shrieked, causing the rest of the guild to jump a little."Uhuh, uhuhhhhh....Ok, I'm so sorry....yes, yes, of course....." They heard Jihoon say to the person on the other side if the phone. Jihoon then nodded his head and hung up.

Jihoon slowly lifted his head, eyes baring into Chan. It was as if you could see Hell itself in his eyes. Chan immediately shrank into the arms of Seokmin who wrapped them around the younger to protect him from the furious devil child. "Lee Chan," Jihoon spoke, more quiet than the rest expected from him, but still terrifying nonetheless. It was so silent in the room that they all heard Chan gulp a little. He knew he was in for it when Jihoon said his full name.

"Did you try to make a portal to Hell.....Again?" Jihoon asked slowly.

Chan gulped again as he tried to shrink further away. ".....maybe," he squeaked out quietly as he hid his face behind Seokmin. At that moment, the fire inside Jihoon's eyes erupted. "LEE CHAN!" Jihoon screamed as he jumped off the top bunk bed swiftly, landing loudly on the floor. 

"Jihoon!" Seungcheol screamed as he hopped off the bed, trying to catch up to the other. The room burst into chaos as Seungcheol and Jisoo grabbed the smaller, trying to keep the other away from the youngest. Jihoon yelled at the two to let him go as the other members put themselves between Chan and Jihoon, the younger screaming out excuses, hoping this wouldn't be his last day to live, for if Jihoon got to him, there would be no tomorrow for him.

"I swear, Chan! Once I get to you!!" Jihoon screamed at the other, Seungcheol and Jisoo desperately trying to hold him back. 

"Babe, please calm down!" Seungcheol pleaded with the younger. 

"WHAT IS THIS?" a voice screamed behind them. They all froze as the turned their heads to the door way. In the doorway stood a furious mother Jeonghan standing with his fists clenched and a locked jaw.

Seungcheol and Jisoo immediately stepped away from Jihoon as they stared at the ground, not able to meet Jeonghan's furious and disappointed look.

Jihoon finally answered him, "Kihyun called and told me that Chan, Changkyun, Bambam, Yugyeom, and Wonpil and Dowoon had tried to open a portal to Hell. Again. And it ended up sucking half of Monsta X's furniture into the portal before Kihyun came home and finally managed to close it."

Jeonghan's furious gaze turned to Chan, who was hiding behind Seokmin. Seokmin immediately stepped away from Chan, exposing the younger. Jeonghan stalked towards the other silently before he grabbed Chan's ear and pulled him out of the room and shutting the door before anyone could follow the furious mother and the whimpering child, leaving the whole room in silence. 

"Ok children....time for bed," Seungcheol said when the two hadn't returned yet after a few minutes. Everyone carefully made their way back to their bunk beds, trying to be as silent as they could, too afraid to make any loud noises. Mingyu climbed into his bed after he turned the light off and the last thing he heard before he fell asleep was Seungkwan quietly whine, "Why can't we just have a normal night for once," before Hansol quietly shushed him.  
  
~~~~

Mingyu sat in his desk in silence as he continued to try to write three simple sentences in English. He had been starring at his blank piece of paper for the past few minutes, trying to recall a few English words, but had no success so far. Minutes slowly dripped by, the clock's tickling that once seemed quiet was now the only thing Mingyu could hear as the noise pounded in his head.

Mingyu looked up and looked around his class. His teacher, Park Jaehyung, also known as Mr.Park, had finally returned, which him and the rest if the class much preferred over Ms.Jamie, and was leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk. Mr.Park was one of his favourite teachers. Chill. That was the word that described Mr.Park, chill. He was so cool that he even allowed students to just call him Jae. He didn't care much for homework and as long as you were following along in class, he'd give you an 'A'. 

The rest of the class was busy writing their sentences that they would have present in front of each other tomorrow. Mingyu felt so lost, he could barely remember any English at all right now and just wanted the class period to be over with so later that day he would be able to get Jisoo or Hansol to help him. And by help, he meant write everything for him. 

Suddenly there was a loud scream coming from outside. The whole class turned their heads towards the window to see who or what had produced the loud scream. Mr.Park stood up from his desk and walked briskly to the window and looked through it. Mingyu and other students got up too, following Mr.Park to the window. 

On the other side of the window was something Mingyu never thought he'd ever see. A bit below him, he saw Chan and another student riding on the back of a dragon. Yep, a dragon. The dragon had grey and red skin and was flying higher and higher with every flap, causing more high pitched screams to come out of both Chan and the other student's mouths in what seemed was like both fear and excitement. 

To the right of him, Mr.Park cursed underneath his breath before saying to the class, "Aissshh, this kid.... Continue with writing your sentences or not, I don't care, watch me go try and tackle this dragon for all I care. I gotta go fight a dragon now, see you guys tomorrow," before he ran out of the classroom to take care of the situation before him. 

For the next half hour Mingyu and the rest of his class stared out the window watching Mr.Park and a few other teachers try to calm the dragon and to get Chan and his friend to get down, which of course they didn't do. "Come on, Jae!" Mingyu heard his friend, Young K, shout out as Mr.Park tried throwing an enchanted chain to bind the dragon. "Yes!" Wonpil said as he and Dowoon high fived when Mr.Park succeeded. 

"Aish, Chan and Changkyun are going to be in so much trouble," Jeonghan hissed beside him, clearly annoyed to have Chan represent their guild in this way. 

"Well at least the school is still intact this time," Jisoo said.

"Ya, THIS time."

~~~~~

"So, you got a lover back at home?" 

"Hmm, why do you ask?" Hansol questioned as he flipped through his textbook.

"I don't know, you asked me that a while ago, so I was just wondering," Mingyu shrugged. The two of them where in the library late at night, trying to finish up a group project in their History class on Gorgons late at night. They could only find accurate information on them in the library, which thankfully was open 24/7. They were the only two still left in the library.

"Um, well not at home. I have a younger sister though. Her name's Sofia. She's my world, one of the most important people in my life, and afterlife," Hansol said chuckling to himself at the end.

"Oh, wouldn't that be hard though, since you can't see her and she thinks you're dead?" Mingyu asked. When Mingyu first arrived, the principal had thoroughly explained that he could never go back to the real world and interact or see former friends and family since that could expose the school. It crushed Mingyu, to know he could never see his family again, to know his siblings would have to suffer alone through his mother's episodes with no one to protect them now. And to know he would never be able to see Wonwoo either, who he still didn't know how he was coping with Mingyu's supposive death.

"Actually I go and see her every week," Hansol told him.

"What?!" 

"Ya, you can't tell anyone, but Hyuna portals me secretly every week to see her. Only she knows I'm still alive though," he explained. "You could probably get her to portal you too, if you have something she wants."

And this was where Mingyu truly regretted his first time he ever met the angel. Every time he saw her in the hallways, she would sneer at him, the look of disgust was far too obvious.

"Ughhh, Why does life come back to haunt me?" Mingyu groaned out loud.

Hansol raised an eyebrow. "When we first met, I might've offended her, like a lot..." Mingyu explained. "Like it's really bad. Like the only thing keeping her from ripping the hair off my head is Kyuhyun right now."

"Aish, it's that bad?" Hansol asked as he grimaced. 

"Yep...," Mingyu sighed.

"Well it doesn't hurt to try asking," Hansol shrugged, "You have to have something she may want."

Mingyu shrugged and the two continued to work in silence. After pure silence for a while, he pressed further, "So do you have someone you like here then?"

Hansol stared at his textbook for a bit and nervously bit his lip. He hesitated a bit before answering, "Yeah, sort of."

"Is it someone I know?" Mingyu knew he was pushing, and it was a bit unfair of him, since Hansol had never questioned further about his ambiguous answer about his "lover" back at home, but Mingyu couldn't help it.

"Umm....yes, but it's not like they'll ever like me back...we're just best friends," Hansol said, eyes still on his textbook, but was very clearly not focusing on the project at hand. Mingyu could feel the mood darken a bit, as Hansol revealed his hopeless situation.

"Seungkwanie?" Mingyu questioned quietly.

Hansol finally looked up at Mingyu as he slightly nodded his head. Him and Hansol were best friends before they both had died, that much Mingyu knew. Seungkwan had very bright red hair that went along with his loud voice. He was an extreme Diva, his nickname, Diva Boo, given to him by Hansol. "You can't tell anyone though!" Hansol told him, fear obvious in his eyes as he pleaded with the other.

"Of course," Mingyu reassured him. Hansol smiled a bit before turning back to his textbook.  
When they returned from the library to the dorm, Hansol and Mingyu were walking in the dark hallways, Hansol asked the other, "What's with the bracelet?" as he gestured to his wrist. Mingyu always wore the bracelet everywhere he went, even to sleep.

"Oh, my best friend back at home has a matching one," Mingyu explained.

"What does the FML stand for?"

"Fuck My Life. This was actually meant for my ex girlfriend, it was out inside joke, but we broke up before I could give it to her, so I gave it to my friend. It then became our inside joke. Well it's not necessarily a joke, but you know, whenever we were going through hard times and stuff, we can look at our bracelets and know we're not alone, that we always have the other to lean on, even when life gets shitty."

Hansol thought about that for a minute before saying, "Nice," and the two continued takedown the hallway to their dorm.

As the reached their dorm and were about to open the door, it was yanked open on the other side. Minghao was in tears as he raced out of the dorm, down the hallway. Hansol and Mingyu shared a confused look before they entered the dorm. 

In the kitchen, Jun stood alone. He too was in tears when he turned to them. Mingyu opened his mouth to ask what had happened, but decided against it as Jeonghan came out from their room and went over to Jun and hugged the other. Jeonghan worked his mother skills and calmed down Jun, soothing the other as he waved Hansol and Mingyu off. They were dealing with a heartbreak right now, and that was not something Mingyu wanted to be involved with.  
  
~~~~~

"What's a darkling?" Mingyu asked Seokmin, whispering to other as the Defense and Battle teachers were demonstrating how to shoot a bow.

"Darklings are what we're training to fight. They're demons and beasts that the average human on Earth can not comprehend nor see, therefore it's out duty to protect them. We'll be sent out on missions later on when we've trained more," Seokmin explained.

"Ahhh, ok, thanks," Mingyu whispered to him.

"Kim Mingyu, come here," one of the teacher's called out. Mingyu's eyes widened a bit, worried that he had begotten in trouble for talking. Mingyu walked over to his teacher, Hyunseong. He had dark hair and wore a black tank top that defined his muscles well.

"Its about time we find your weapon," Hyunseong explained to him as he lead the other to the weapons room.

"Ohhh."

"Do you have any ideas what might fit you?" His teacher asked a Mingyu skimmed his eyes over the various weapon choices. Mingyu shrugged, not quiet sure what he wanted. "Here, I'll bring out what we have, if you excel at a certain one, we'll go into specifics," Hyunseong said as he began gathering weapons to bring outside.

When they went outside to the training station, Hyunseong handed him a sword. "Just try out a swings first and stuff, it should just come natural to you."

Mingyu nodded his head as he took the sword and swung it around. It felt too heavy and unnatural. He couldn't keep balance with the sword, every time he made a swing or jab, the sword was too heavy and slow.

They tried a whip next. Let's just say that didn't end too well and Mingyu managed to almost slice his teacher open.

He was then handed a spear and axe. Neither of those worked too well either. Nothing felt natural.

They then moved onto martial arts weapons like nunchucks, which Minghao used, and even fans that could be enchanted, which Jeonghan like to use, and throwing knives. Mingyu needs up whacking himself in the head with the nunchucks.

They even tried a few bats at one point, for some reason Jun liked to use a spiked bat along with his vampire powers in battle.

Things started to get frustrating. Why was it so hard? Hyunseong had tried to reassure him, telling the other many other students had trouble finding what they wanted as well. But Mingyu felt hopeless. Why was nothing coming natural to him? They had gone through the majority if the weapons, but nothing fit. "You could also be talented with spells and potions," Hyunseong pointed out. Mingyu shrugged.

"Oh, here! Try this!" Hyunseong said as he handed him a bow and arrow. Mingyu knocked the arrow into the bow as he aimed at his target that laid before him. Mingyu sucked in a breathe before he released the arrow as he let his breathe out. The arrow soared in the air to its target. It landed in the second most inner level. 

Hyunseong's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "That was really good! Did that come natural to you?" 

Mingyu smiled to himself, finally feeling accomplished for finding something he was good at, "Yes!"

"That means you should probably be using something with aiming."

As Hyunseong looked through the types of bows he had, something caught Mingyu's eyes. The sun seemed to be reflected off of something near the back, so when Mingyu went to investigate be found a pair of revolvers laying on a table. What were something like these doing here? They seemed so out of place with all of the more inadvanced weapons. Mingyu picked up the revolvers, admiring the detailed design. 

Hyunseong looked up and saw the other observing the revolvers, "Oh, do you want to try those out? Most students don't really use guns here since there's not a lot here and they're not really more effective on darklings than other weapons."

Mingyu nodded his head as he cocked the gun and pointed it at another target. His eyes narrowed as he focused on the target. He retook a breathe and released it as he released the trigger, it had a bit of a kick as it jolted Mingyu's arm a bit. It shot right into the middle with the loud gunshot echoing into air. Pride swelled in Mingyu's heart as a smile replaced the frown on his face.

For the second time today Hyunseong's eyes widened. "I think you've found your weapon," Hyunseong smiled.

"I think I have."

~~~~~  
  
"But it just doesn't make sense! Why would Jaebum do that? Especially to Youngjae, I mean he loves Youngjae, more than anything, what would make him do that?" 

The loud blonde haired boy, Jackson, shook his head in disapproval, shrugging a bit before answering Seungcheol, "I don't know. I mean Jaebum and Jinyoung used to date, but I thought Jaebum and them were just friends now. Either way, Jaebum hasn't really been treating Youngjae the best lately. I always see Youngjae in tears when I return to the dorm."

"I tried talking to Youngjae earlier, but he refuses to talk," Sana chimed in. Sana had light brown, curly hair, and was in the guild Twice, while Jackson was in the guild Got7. There were certain guilds that were friends amongst each other, like Twice, Got7, Monsta X, Seventeen, and Day6 were all good friends with one another.

"First it was Minghao and Jun, now it's Jaebum and Youngjae. Who's next?" Sungjin sighed out loud.

Before Jackson could respond to the other, the bell rang, it was the end of their free period. The rest of Mingyu's friend group headed back to their dorms, getting up from the grass that they were sitting on as they talked outside. 

As Mingyu got up and headed off, a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist lightly, turning him around, "Where are you going? Are you heading back to the dorm?" His leader asked. 

"I actually have something to do before I head back, I have to speak with a teacher about this class assignment," Mingyu told the other, feeling slightly uncomfortable with lying to his friend to his face.

Seungcheol let go of his wrist and smiled at him as he said, "Oh, ok," and left with the others. Mingyu took a deep breathe. Technically he's not lying, he does have to speak with someone, just not necessarily a teacher. Mingyu continues on his way as he enters the school castle again and walked down the hallway, turning different corners as he remembered the directions Hansol had told him before.

Mingyu soon found himself in front of a wooden door that had the guild name "Triple H" engraved in it. Mingyu took another deep breathe before knocking on the door. A few moments passed by as he heard a voice behind the door shout out, "Hold on a minute!"

There was some shuffling behind the door before it was flung open. Facing him was the very person, or angel, that he had previously pissed off two weeks ago when they had first met. Hyuna's hair was now a reddish, orange colour and then familiar glare she always shot him appeared once again. "What are you doing here?" She sneered.

Mingyu suddenly became flustered. What was he really doing here? Did he actually expect her to help him after saying what he had to her? No, he had to do this. For Wonwoo. He needed to at least see him one last time. "I need to talk with you about something, preferably not out in the hallway."

Hyuna's eyes narrowed, "Why would I let you in?" 

God, she was going to make this hard. Mingyu released a long breathe before he answered, "Please, I really need your help and Hansol said you could help me."

Hyuna's expression changed ever so slightly when she heard Hansol's name. "Fine, come in,"she finally said as she stepped away from the door to let him in. Mingyu stepped into the room. The dorm was much larger compared to the dorm he shared with his other guild members. Her living room and kitchen were much larger and there seemed to be a door that lead to a porch. Perks of being an angel and Kyuhyun's right hand woman, I guess. "Sit," Hyuna said as she motioned towards the couch in the living room. Mingyu carefully made his way over to the couch, scared about what Hyuna might do to him here, and sat down. Hyuna made her way over to the seat across from the coach, crossing her legs as the sat down, "So why are you here?" she asked, not one to like to beat around the Bush.

"Well you see, Hansol told me about his weekly visits with his sister earlier this week," Mingyu told her. Hyuna's eyes narrowed again as she figured out where this was going.

"And I'm guessing you want to go back too, to visit that one special person you left behind because you can't bear to be apart from them, huh?" Hyuna said as she rolled her eyes, already hearing stories and requests like this before.

"Listen, I just need to go back once, ok. I'll do anything, I just need to go back once," Mingyu pleaded with her.

"Why should I help you? You of all people? Don't you remember when we first met, huh?" Hyuna asked as her eyes narrowed again, a snarl forming on her face. 

"I'm sorry for saying that, I really am. I just need to go back once, that's all I want. I'll do anything, there has to be something you want, right?" Mingyu said, practically begging at this point. 

Hyuna was silent for a minute as she thought it over before saying, "Fine, here's the deal. I need you to go into Jihoon's potion stash and get me a vile of ghost tears. Get me that and I'll   
grant you one visit back to Earth."

"Ok, deal," Mingyu said, a smile forming on his face. He expected this to go much worse than this. "But how do I do that....?," Mingyu asked, releasing he had no idea where Jihoon's potion stash was.

"In the back of his little dungeon lab, he has a storage area of extra ingredients. On one of his shelfs there will be racks of viles. They're in alphabetical order so you should be able to find it easily. The only thing is, you can't be caught by Jihoon. He can't know that you took something," Hyuna explained to him.

"Why can't Jihoon know? And why don't you just ask for some on you own?" Mingyu asked, confused why Hyuna wanted this to be so discreet.

"That's none of your business, just do your job and I'll give you what you want," Hyuna snapped at him. Mingyu quickly nodded his head before he thanked her and headed out of the door.

"Oh, and Mingyu," he heard Hyuna say as he was about to leave. Mingyu stopped and turned his head around a bit to listen to what she had to say. "Make sure you don't drop or break the vile."

~~~~~

"Ok, you got this Mingyu. How hard is it to sneak into Jihoon's dungeon and steal Ghost Tears?" Mingyu thought to himself as he took a deep breathe and prepped himself for what he was about to do. Impossible. That's what this was. Jihoon barely ever left his dungeon lab since he had already finished his four years of mandatory school here and mainly focused on potions and spells here where she wasn't out on missions. What was he thinking, breaking into his friend's lab like this to steal something that wasn't even his. "What am I doing?" Mingyu thought to himself as he internally sighed.

Mingyu couldn't really explain the unbearable longing to see Wonwoo again, just one last time. He couldn't repress this urge. He needed to see Wonwoo one more time. He was determined, he'd do anything just to see him one more time. And maybe he could stop by his house to check up on his siblings while he was at it. "Ya, don't forget your siblings over your boyfriend," Mingyu thought. "Best friend. Best friend," Mingyu corrected himself.

Mingyu sat silently, crouching on the floor, looking around the corner, waiting for Jihoon to leave his dungeon lab. Finally he heard the door cream open and Mingyu quickly pulled his head back around the corner, making sure he wasn't seen. He heard footsteps walk down the hallway in the opposite direction. He peeked around the corner and saw Jihoon's back as he walked away. "Yes, he's going back to the dorm for tonight," Mingyu thought, sighing in relief. Most nights Jihoon didn't sleep in the dorm and spent his nights in his lab. 

Mingyu waited for a few seconds longer, making sure Jihoon was far gone before he finally stood up and walked to the door, reaching his hand out to the door handle. His hand rested on the door handle as he took another breathe before he slowly opened the door open a bit. 

Mingyu finally understood why people called his lab a dungeon. The room was immensely dark and there seemed to be mist and smoke in the air. Mingyu slowly entered the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He carefully made his way to the back, avoiding the large cauldron in the middle of the room that had grey, bubbling liquid in it. Like Hyuna had said, there was a storage room in the back that held all sorts of magical objects. On the right wall there were racks of viles lined up in alphabetical order. 

"Just grab the vile and go," Mingyu told himself quietly, too scared to make any noise. "G....g....no ghost tears...," Mingyu whispered as his eyes narrowed when he couldn't find the vile. He continued to search the wall till he came across the 'T' category, and the "Tears" section. There were Fairy Tears, Unicorn Tears, and countless other viles containing mythical creatures' tears. Mingyu searched through the viles till he finally found one labeled "Ghost Tears." The vile was clear and there was a substance inside it. It wasn't liquid, it was almost like smoke, it was grey and transparent. 

Mingyu quickly grabbed the vile and bolted out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. As he made his way down the hallway, immediately going to Hyuna's dorm, he met Jisoo along the way, because that was just his luck.

"Hey, Mingyu. Whatcha doing out this late at night?" Jisoo asked him, giving him a bright smile.

Mingyu quickly hid the vile behind his back as he said to the other, "I could ask you the same thing."

Jisoo chuckled before telling him, "I just got back from helping out at the hospital. Moonbyul and Solar were teaching me how to heal and stuff."

"Oh, that's cool," Mingyu said, trying to avoid further conversation.

"You didn't answer my question," Jisoo said.

"I'm on my way to see Hyuna," Mingyu said, trying not to seem suspicious.

Jisoo's eyebrows raised in surprise, "Why? I thought she hated you."

"She did, but we worked out our differences. She's helping me on a History project I have over angels and stuff," Mingyu told him. It made him a bit afraid of how easily it was for him to lie to his guild members.

"Oh, well good for you guys," Jisoo smiled. "Well I'm heading back to the dorm now, see you there later tonight I guess."

"Bye." Mingyu released a breathe he didn't know he had been holding in when Jisoo left him. Mingyu continued his way down the hallway to Hyuna's dorm. He knocked once again, but someone different answered the door. A blonde haired guy answered the door with a raised eyebrow as he asked the other in confusion, "Um, can I help you?"

"Uh, ya... I was actually hoping to talk to Hyuna," Mingyu told the other in question quiet voice. 

"Oh, ok, come in," the boy said as he stepped aside. Mingyu entered the room once again and saw Hyuna already sitting in her seat across from the couch.

Hyuna turned to the boy as she said, "Hui, can you leave us for a second, I'm doing business right now."

"Whatever," Hui said as he shrugged and left the room.

Hyuna returned her attention to Mingyu and motioned for him to sit down. "Do you have it?" She immediately asked him. Mingyu nodded his head as he lifted the vile in his hand that he had previously been clutching tightly due to his nervousness. He handed Hyuna the vile and she examined the object, smiling a little to herself. "Good, come back here during dinner tomorrow and we'll take care of your part of the deal," she told him.

Mingyu nodded his head to show he understood and then stood up and left the red haired angel in her room, still observing the vile in amazement and wonder with a faint smile creeping upon her face. Mingyu had already shut the door by the time Hyuna had whispered to herself, "Ingredient One obtained."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy guys, sorry it took me so long to update, for some reason I haven't that much motivation to write, BUT the Meanie Reunion is finally going to be here in the chapter ten, that I promise y'all. Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter <3


	9. Bullies and Stalkers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo adjusts his life to SM's Asylum. Summary are crap, sorry :/

Grey walls. Grey, brick walls. That's all Wonwoo was surrounded continuously. A repeating theme that he wasn't exactly fond of. Wonwoo never had a problem with the colour, in fact the majority of clothes he used to own were grey; he really didn't mind the colour until now. Being constantly trapped in once place, only seeing the same thing over and over again, where you go takes a toll on the brain sometimes. Wonwoo felt the walls closing on him, trapping him forever. Now he hated the colour, grey. So dull, lifeless, faded. It could be worse though, at least the walls weren't bright orange. 

Wonwoo laid on his small, uncomfortable bed, staring up at the ceiling, that was too, the colour grey. He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe in of the musky air that smelled like old, moldy paint. He had gotten used to the smell now, after a week of consistently breathing in the strong and overwhelming odor. Wonwoo spent most of his time like this. When he wasn't at his therapy sessions or with his new, sorta friends, he just stayed in his room, contemplating the meaning of life and wondering why aliens hadn't come and taken over the world yet. 

Sometimes he and Jessica would stay in his room and talk, but right now she was on her "sorta, but not really date" with Seulgi and the rest of his friends were either in the main room or getting their health check up. Wonwoo recently found out they had a gym here. It wasn't all that big and there was only the standard equipment there such as a treadmill and weights, but Wonwoo ran a few miles a day to pass the time. He also read, they had some books in the main room on the shelves that he read. None of them were all that interesting, but Wonwoo still read them, they were a good distraction and helped pass the time.

Wonwoo heard footsteps approaching his room, one of the only noises to be heard in the quiet hallway. Wonwoo turned his head to the right to find a security guard at his door that he usually kept open. Wonwoo stood up, brushing some dust and lint off his grey sweat pants before he followed the security guard out the door. Wonwoo already knew the security guard had come to fetch him for his therapy session, so no words were spoken between the two. They finally reached Dr.Chaewon's room and the guard left him as Wonwoo knocked on the door.

Wonwoo heard his therapist's faint voice call out from behind the door, "Come in." Wonwoo opened the door, trying not to make it creek as he entered the room. Dr.Chaewon was already sitting in her chair next to the lamp, the only thing illuminating the room. She gave him a small smile as he sat down on the coach across from her.

"So it's been around a week now, and now that I've gotten to know you a lot better I feel that we have established a good trust between one another," Dr.Chaewon started off. Wonwoo nodded, not quiet sure where this was going. "Now I want to start getting into the more recent stuff. I know about your past, your interest, etc, but now I want to know more about what happened recently, about Mingyu," she continued a bit more slowly, choosing her words carefully.

"Oh," was all Wonwoo could say. Wonwoo did trust Dr.Chaewon. She never pushed him, never pressured him to talk about anything he didn't want to. She was there for him when he sometimes broke down in the middle of the day, cancelling her other meetings and plans to talk with him. The two had only gone over the surface of topics though, nothing too deep after Wonwoo had talked about his father. He wasn't sure if he was ready to really talk about Mingyu yet. He still thought about the other. When he wasn't distracting himself with other things, Mingyu was all he could think about. Always pressing on the back of his mind, something he could never forget or ignore. Wonwoo wasn't sure he was ready to pour out everything to his therapist, no matter how much he trusted her.

Dr.Chaewon seemed to notice Wonwoo's hesitation, quickly adding, "We don't have to talk about any of that of course. Not until you're ready, I just feel we've made a lot of progress so far that maybe we could venture out a bit to that area."

Wonwoo looked up at his therapist. He realized he didn't know much about her either though. All of their sessions had been about him. He barely knew anything about her. Was it foolish to put his trust into someone he barely knew? Wonwoo's hesitation only grew as he thought about this. "I don't know anything about you, though," he quietly said.

Dr.Chaewon's eyebrows furrowed as she thought about that for a second before responding, "Hmm, I guess you're right." She crossed her legs before proceeding, "My full name is Kim Chaewon. I'm twenty five years old. I enjoy singing and gardening. My favourite colour is light green and I obviously I work here at SM Asylum."

Wonwoo didn't say anything, not really sure what to do with the information, and not really caring, only wanting to stall time. 

After a few seconds of waiting for Wonwoo to respond, Dr.Chaewon sighed before asking, "How about this, you tell me just a little bit about Mingyu. Doesn't have to be anything deep, just tell me about him."

Wonwoo thought it over for a few seconds. Just talking about Mingyu wouldn't hurt, right? He wouldn't have to go in too deep about him, just tell her about him, that's all. Wonwoo took a breathe before telling the other, "We first really met in our sophomore year of high school the day my dad died. We didn't talk for a year afterwards, whenever we saw each other in the hallways, we would act as if we didn't even know each other. Maybe he thought he was doing me a favor, for not bringing up that day. Our third junior year in high school, we finally really talked with one another because we were paired for a school project. Some how we just clicked. Before I never thought I would be friends with someone like him. He was popular, smooth, the class clown. I was just the quiet, smart kid. But we became best friends. I had some other friends back then, but I wasn't close with any of them. None of them bothered to to spend much time with me, usually using me for homework of whatever. But Mingyu was different. He cared. He cared about me, he took the time to get to know me. He wasn't like most popular people in our school, he was very kind to everyone. Kept his head held high when others made fun of him for having such kindness for others, for hanging out with me in general. He didn't care what others thought. As popular as he was, he was also a huge dork. He could be the biggest nerd sometimes, and that's what I loved about him. He was also into art a lot, he used to paint some....they were so good, they were beautiful."

Wonwoo paused for a second, not sure if he wanted to say the next thing he was heading to. But he did trust Dr.Chaewon. even if he didn't know her well, he knew she cared for him and only wanted the best for him. So he continued, "I don't know how, but I had some how fallen in love with him. I know it's stupid to say stuff like that, that I don't know what love is, but Mingyu became my everything. When he wasn't with me, I thought of him. He became someone I depended on so much, to be there for me always, to listen to my stupid rants, someone to ride or die with. I was there when he needed me most and he was there when I needed him most. He always did what was best for me, never him. He was never selfish. No matter how fun he would be having at a stupid college party, he'd always leave whenever I felt uncomfortable. He was there when I would have my anxiety attacks when the stress would get to me. And I was there when he had his...family problems."

"Family problems?" Dr.Chaewon questioned.

"His father usually wasn't home most of the time, always on business trips. His mother...is, well...addicted to meth. She was...abusive. He and his siblings would have to face her wrath every so often when she'd have her episodes. Usually Mingyu took the beatings though, he couldn't stand by and watch his siblings go through that. But when he and his sister left for college, his younger brother was left on his own. Sometimes he'd call him and tell him about her episodes and Mingyu would break down....It was hard to watch. To see him usually so confident and indestructible, to be so vulnerable then, so broken. He'd tell me so often how he felt useless, how frustrated he was he couldn't do anything. Things got a little better though. His mother has been trying to stop. She still has her episodes every so often, but not as frequent anymore."

"How's the family doing now?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. Last time I saw them was a few days before the funeral when his older sister came to our house once. She told me her mother was determined to quit now after Mingyu's died Too bad it took her son's death to make her quit," Wonwoo sighed.

"Well let's got back track a little, did you ever tell Mingyu how you felt?"

Wonwoo opened his mouth to answer her, but no words came out. He could feel tears forming in the corners of his eyes, but he pushed them back as he swallowed and took a breathe. He hadn't planned to talk about Mingyu this much or this deep, but now that his mouth was running, he couldn't stop it. "....no...I never told him. There were moments that I really wanted to, but I couldn't. If I told him, things would never be the same. I know he had always been straight, I pretended to be, pretended to be fine with just being friends with him, but it killed me inside, it hurt to keep my feelings shoved so far down for so long. But I couldn't tell him, not when our friendship was at stake. I had rather been just best friends with him and never tell him than losing our friendship. Our friendship was all I had. But now that he's....gone... Just regret it so much. I never had the chance to tell him. He deserved to know. Maybe it would've been better if I had never met him at all."

"But he made you happy, right?" Dr.Chaewon asked.

 

"Yes, I was only truly happy with him to be honest," Wonwoo admitted.

"And you meant so much to him, helped him through so much?"

"...yes..."

"Then why would you regret ever meeting him?"

"Because if I hadn't, Mingyu wouldn't have been tied down by me.... He would've found a better friend, someone who was honest with him.... I wouldn't have fallen in love with someone untouchable. He wouldn't have gone after me that day and would still be alive today...."

"So you blame yourself for his death?"

"...yes...." Wonwoo didn't know when the tears started, but the were rolling down his cheeks and wouldn't seem to stop.

Dr.Chaewon took a deep breathe before telling Wonwoo, "You can't blame yourself for this. I know you might have heard this a dozen times before, but you can't blame yourself for his death. It sounds to me Mingyu was the best possible thing that could've happened to you, and you were the best thing for him. Don't regret that. Don't regret those good moments with him, don't regret loving someone as much as you did. Mingyu made a decision that day. He put himself in harm's way just for you. Don't let that be in vain, Wonwoo."

She then got up from her chair and bent down in front of Wonwoo. She then wrapped her arms around Wonwoo, who was sobbing now at this point, pulling him into a hug. She rubbed his back, trying to soothe the other. "Its not your fault," she repeated to him quietly as Wonwoo pulled her closer and cried into her shoulder. 

"But it is..." Wonwoo whimpered. No matter how many times he or someone else told himself that, he didn't believe it, he just couldn't believe it.

"No, Wonwoo. If anyone is to blame, it's the shooter, not you. Mingyu did what he had to protect you and everyone else. Don't blame yourself for something that was out of your control."

Wonwoo shut his eyes tightly, his brain subconsciously trying to block out her words, not believing them, "I can't though..."

Dr.Chaewon pulled back a bit to look Wonwoo in the eye, "Then we'll work on it. It takes time, but you need to learn to forgive yourself and accept what happened."

Wonwoo only nodded as he wiped the tears if his face, sniffling a bit. On the table, an alarm went off loudly, ruining the moment. Their hour was up. Dr.Chaewon still remained in front of him after she broke away from their embrace, "You can't talk to me anytime outside of our sessions," she reminded him. Wonwoo nodded again, not trusting his voice at the moment.   
Wonwoo cleaned himself up a bit before he said his good bye and left the room with red, puffy eyes, and a new weight lifted off him once more.

~~~~~

"Ugh!"

Jessica rolled her eyes as she blew a strand of hair out of her face, "What is it this time, Ms.Diva?" 

Baekhyun gave her a cold glare as he whined loudly, "This is the third time this week we've had potatoes as the main dish. And it's only Wednesday!"

"It's really all the same...," Kyungsoo mumbled to the side of him as he picked at his food a bit.

Minseok cleared his throat before he informed the table, "Actually, potatoes are a great food source. In the Middle Ages, the majority of people lived off of potatoes due to famine. In fact, after the Potato Famine, many Irish ended up dying because potatoes were their only food, so many Irish moved to America due to the lack of food source."

"Thanks for the unneeded information," Jessica said as she aggressively stabbed at her potatoes on her tray of food.

"Plus you can have potatoes in so many different ways. You can boil them, you can bake them, French fries, sweet potatoes, etc," Minseok's boyfriend, Luhan, a Chinese boy with blonde hair, added.

"That doesn't change the fact that I'm sick of potatoes," Baekhyun pouted. Luhan and Minseok shrugged in unison as they continued to eat their portion of potatoes.

Suddenly there was a loud crash coming from the opposite side of the cafeteria. Wonwoo turned around in his chair. Across the room there was Jongdae frozen in place by what seemed was terror, tray knocked out of his hands, its contents spilling onto the floor. Before the other stood another guy with black hair and a broad build, a smug look painted upon his face.

Behind Wonwoo he heard Suho sigh before he stood up and walked towards the commotion. Wonwoo and the rest of the table sat in silence as they watched Suho cross the room calmly. Once Suho reached the two, Jongdae quickly hid behind Suho, shying away from the brute. Though Wonwoo couldn't hear what they were saying, he could tell there was a heated argument occurring. Not only a minute later, Suho was grabbed by the collar by the other and was shoved into the wall. 

Being the good friend Wonwoo was, he immediately stood up against Jessica's please and quickly jogged over towards the three. It was like his body was on autopilot. He hadn't initially wanted to confront the other, but his body had already led him that way. "Yah! What do you think you're doing!" Wonwoo shouted at the other when he reached them. 

The stranger turned his head around slightly, his dangerous eyes baring into Wonwoo's. "Excuse me?" 

Suho was still shoved against the wall; their eyes met and Suho tried his best to convey to the other to leave and stay out of this. But Wonwoo, once again being the stubborn fuck he was, ignored him as he stood his ground, "I asked what the Hell do you think you're doing?"  
The dark haired boy's eyes narrowed as his lip curled back, "I suggest you stay out of this, boy," he growled, voice deep and gruff.

Wonwoo only straightened his back as he mustered up as much courage as he could. These were his friends, his family even. He didn't know them all that well, but they accepted him, he cared for them. He couldn't understand why someone would try to hurt someone as gentle and friendly as Jongdae, nor even dare to get physical with someone as sweet and caring as Suho. Not being one to stand up to others though, he couldn't help the fact his voice trembled a little when he answered the other, "N-no. No."

The guy turned around, his attention fully on Wonwoo as he released Suho, who was still trying to signal to the other that what he was doing was one of the most idiotic things he could ever do. Even though Wonwoo was taller than the other, the stranger was able to tower above him, wielding some odd sort of higher power, ready to crush him with it at any moment. "Who the fuck do you think you are?" the other spat.

"That-that's exactly what I was going to ask you," Wonwoo said, getting more nervous as time went by slowly, but he continued on, "What makes you think you can just smack Jongdae's food out of his hands and get physically aggressive with Suho, huh?"

The other's eyes narrowed even more as his hands formed into fists by his side and his face turned red. Never had someone ever talked to him that way before. "Fuck off if you know what's good for you," he threatened, his voice some how going even deeper. Jongdae's eyes widened as he watched the scene unfold before him and shrunk away beside Suho, who seemed to have given up on trying to help Wonwoo. Both of them stood in silence, suspense filled the air as they watched the two staring one another off.

Wonwoo's eyebrows furrowed as he realised what kind of person this guy was, "You think you can just pick on people and push them around just because you think you're tough. You think because everyone's afraid of you that you can do whatever you want. Hah, how fucking cliche! You know, I've always hated people like you. People who just push around others because they can, because they think it's fun and abuse their power," Wonwoo snarled as he pointed a finger at the other, poking him in the chest, moving his face closer to the other as he spat out his words.

In a split second, Wonwoo saw something flash in the other's eyes, something that looked like fear. He looked vulnerable, like he had just exposed the other's biggest secret, as if he was scared of Wonwoo's words and worried that he might be real. As fast as the look appeared, it disappeared. Anger and fury twisted his face. In a blur of a second he felt something connect with his jaw. Pain immediately exploded where the blow had landed, sending waves of pain that traveled throughout his face. Wonwoo stumbled back, losing his balance and falling to the dirty, cold floor.

The other stood over him, glaring down at him, ready to squish him like a bug. Before he could do any further damage, security guards rushed up to the other, pulling him away from Wonwoo. The other didn't seem to struggle against the guards who were leading him out of the cafeteria. A smile creeped upon his face as he gave Wonwoo a warning glare that said: This isn't over.  
Suho quickly helped the other up off the floor. "Stupid boy! What we're you thinking? Getting involved like that!" Suho fussed over him as he tilted Wonwoo's head up, looking at the bruise starting to bloom on his jaw. 

"I'm fine. Besides, I'm not just going to stand over to the side watching him treat you like that," Wonwoo told the other as he pulled away from him.

Suho gave him a cold glare as he scolded the other, "I had it under control."

"Sure you did," Wonwoo said as he rolled his eyes.

"Well, I'm thankful for what you did!" Jongdae exclaimed as he hugged the other aggressively.

Wonwoo smiled as he patted the other on his head. He looked up and saw Jessica approaching him, clearly not impressed with him. "What was that?" She questioned, annoyed with Wonwoo's actions.

Wonwoo shrugged as he told her, "What? He was being a total dick."

Jessica brought a hand up to her face and slowly dragged it down, so done with everything, "Whatever."

"Who was that guy anyways?" Wonwoo questioned.

"His name is Gunhee. He's literally sadistic and a total prick. He picks on people just to start a fight. He likes seeing others in pain. You made a stupid mistake picking a fight with him," Suho told him.

Wonwoo shrugged. He'd deal with the consequences later. Wonwoo didn't realize then how soon those consequences would catch up to him.

~~~~~

"If animals could speak, they'd probably cuss us out for the stupid shit humans have done to the ecosystem."

"Why do you have to be so cynical?" Jongin sighed at Yixing as he cutely pouted, "We were just trying to have a normal conversation about super powers."

"Why would you even try to have a normal conversation with these fools?" Jessica asked as she raised an eyebrow at the other.

Jongin shrugged as he answered, "Fair enough," and snuggled closer to Kyungsoo who sat beside him. 

"Besides, why would you want to speak to animals? I rather be able to control fire," Chanyeol told them.

Yixing's eyebrows furrowed as he stated, "That's just because you like to watch things burn."

"Exactly," Chanyeol said as he shot a finger gun towards the Chinese boy who was so done with these people. 

As Wonwoo's friends debated about which superpower would be the best, Wonwoo shuddered a bit in surprise as Jessica leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear. "There's this security guard that keeps staring at you. To the far left near the bookshelves," she whispered as her eyes flickered towards the man she was talking about. Wonwoo looked up and sure enough there was a security guard staring right at him, but quickly looked away, averting Wonwoo's gaze. "He's been staring at you and following you since around eight," Jessica informed him. 

Wonwoo looked at the clock on the wall. It was 11:36pm. Three hours. This guy had been following him for three hours? Talk about creepy. "Do you think I'm in trouble?" Wonwoo asked his friend quietly. 

"I don't know, most guards only walk around the facility, they don't stay in one room for this long...." Jessica told him as she shrugged. 

"Let's just wait and see," Wonwoo said, as he spared a quick glance at the guard again, who once again, was staring right back at him. Wonwoo shuddered a bit, feeling extremely uncomfortable as if he could feel the other's eyes on him. Wonwoo tried to focus on his friends' conversation, but couldn't, always looking over every now and again to catch the guard looking at him again. Once his friends decided it was about time to head back to their rooms around 12:00am, Wonwoo continued to sit in his chair as his friends got up.

"What are you doing?" Jessica asked him, a confused look on her face.

"Go ahead. I'm going to wait and see if he follows me," Wonwoo whispered to her. Jessica nodded her head and left with the rest of his friends. Wonwoo was the only one still left in the main room. He picked at his nails and waited a few minutes before he stood up and exited the room, heading towards his room.

He walked slowly, trying to he's for footsteps behind him. And sure enough as he continued down the hallway he could hear quiet footsteps trailing behind him. Wonwoo frowned to himself, utterly confused to why this security guard was following him. Was Dr.Chaewon concerned about him and ordered a security guard to follow him around? Wonwoo shook his head, still baffled. As he turned the corner, he hid behind it, back pressed against the wall, waiting for the guard to turn the corner as well.

As soon as he did he grabbed for the guards arm, pulling him to the side. The guard jumped at the contact between them and his eyes widened as he stiffened in Wonwoo's grip. He had dark brown hair and a strong jaw line. Fear flashed across his face as he stared up at Wonwoo, frozen in place.

"Why are you following me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooohhh, we got a cliff hanger!! XD Who do y'all think this creepy guard stalker is?? What are his motives?? Also, yes, I know I changed Kim Chaewon's age, I needed to make her older than Wonwoo so :/ haven't checked how long this chapter is, sorry that it'd low key a filler and it may be short. Hope you enjoyed!


	10. Meanie Reunion (sorta)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu goes to Earth to find Wonwoo.

Mingyu was never good at being patient. The one weakness the nearly perfect boy had, was the lack of patience. There was a growing itch inside of him, clawing its way out throughout the day as Mingyu suffered through class, barely paying attention to any of the lessons, as he waited for the day to come to an end. 

Mingyu glanced at the clock for the hundredth time that day. He was to head to Hyuna's dorm around the same time they had last met. Two hours till nine. Mingyu sighed to himself as he stared up at the ceiling, laying back on his bed. His homework laid in a messy pile at the foot of his bed. He should probably be doing that right now, but most of his work was done already anyways and the majority of it would be due later on in the week. 

"Watcha thinking about?" Jun asked him as he peered down at him from his top bunk.  
Mingyu shrugged, not able to meet his member's eyes.

Jun's eyes narrowed as he noticed Mingyu's attitude, "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked the other.  
Mingyu finally looked up at him and admitted quietly, "I'm not completely sure if I'm supposed to be mad at you for Minghao's sake."

The blue haired boy rolled his eyes as he sighed, "Oh." The two sat in silence for a few minutes as they were the only two left in the dorm. Jun finally broke the silence, sighing out loud, "I hate this. Half the guild hates me now and even other guilds know about it. They start rumors and they gossip, I know it hurts Minghao that everyone's secretly talking behind out backs."

Mingyu frowned, not quiet sure what to say to the other, so he stayed silent, avoiding Jun's gaze at him.

"I don't know what to do... I didn't mean to hurt him, God, I love him more than anything in the world, but I'm scared.... I don't know how to make it up to him...," Jun ranted out to the other, not really expecting a response though.

"Why are you scared?" Mingyu asked the other.

Jun hesitated before he answered him, "I'm scared... because of what people think. I know it's lame, but I have a reputation. I'm a player, a fuck boy, I don't get attached, I don't settle down. I cared more about what people thought than what my own boyfriend wanted...and that's why I lost him...."

Mingyu shifted his position on the bed, laying on his stomach now, feet propped up on his pillow as he told his friend, "He thinks you're embarrassed of him, that the reason you kept everything a secret was because you didn't want people knowing you were dating HIM. So prove to him that that isn't the case. Prove to him that you don't care what other people think now."

"But how?" Jun whined, feeling utterly hopeless.

"There's a school dance coming up. Figure something out from there," Mingyu suggested.

Jun's eyes widened as an idea popped into his head and a smile slowly replaced his frown, "I have an idea!" He told the other before rushing out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him as he raced out of the dorm to find some other friends.

"Your welcome," Mingyu mumbled to himself as he repositioned himself on his bed again and looked at the clock again. An hour and forty five minutes left.

~~~~~

Three loud knocks echoed throughout the hallway at night, the sound of knuckles wrapping against wood. A quiet, delicate voice called out behind the door, "Who is it?"

"Mingyu."

The door unlocked and was pulled aside by the red haired angel. She gave him a small smile as she opened the door. It was the first smile she had ever gave him, this was a significant moment."Come in," she urged as she ushered him in quickly. 

Once inside the dorm, Hyuna led them to the couch like last time. Her roommate, Hui, who also happened to be in the guild Pentagon, stood in the kitchen. He immediately recognized Mingyu and looked to Hyuna. There eyes met and it seemed as though they were having a telepathic conversation, Mingyu wouldn't be surprised if they were to be honest now. Hui nodded his head at Hyuna before picking up a banana from the counter and leaving the room.

"Ok, so just in case, I'm going to give you this," Hyuna said as she handed him a vile containing a transparent liquid that had a yellow tint to it. "This is a shape shifting potion. Pull the hair off someone's head and put it in the vile and it'll dissolve and then drink. It'll make you look like that person," Hyuna informed him.

Mingyu's eyes furrowed, "Why do I need this?" 

"Just in case you don't want people recognizing you. We can't have people releasing you've come back from the dead. It's ok if your friend knows, only if he won't tell anyone, but that's it," she explained to him.

"Oh, ok." She then lead him to the center of the room where it was mostly clear; they stood on a soft carpet and Hyuna rose her hands and closed her eyes. She whispered a few words before her hands started to glow a light purple light and a portal formed in the middle of the room. Mingyu's eyes widened in surprise as he peeked around the other side. The portal was extremely thin and had a purple tint to it. Various shades of purple swirled in Portland, looking like mixed paint. 

"I'm living you three hours, on Earth though, that's equal to nine hours. If you need to come back here earlier, then press this bottom on this bracelet," Hyuna instructed as she handed him a bracelets similar to the one he received during the Arena battles. "When you're time is up, it will automatically transport you back here."

"Ok...got it," Mingyu said slowly, getting nervous by the second. Was this really a good idea? Was it really worth it? What if Wonwoo freaked out on him? Mingyu shook his head a little, focusing on the main reason he was here in the first place. Wonwoo. Wonwoo would accept him back no matter what, as long as he knew he was alive, Mingyu would be happy. He needed to see Wonwoo one more time, for a last good bye. 

Mingyu took a deep breathe before thanking Hyuna and stepping through the portal. Colours swirled around him, his head felt as if was spinning at a hundred miles per hour, disorienting him, similar to when Hyuna had first transported him to the school. Finally the spinning seemed to stop and his feet landed on soft ground. 

He blinked a few times as his vision came into focus. Mingyu looked around and noticed he was standing on a patch of grass next go a sidewalk and an intersection. He observed his surroundings trying to figure out where he had just transported. "It could've helped if Hyuna had told me where she was transporting me to," Mingyu thought to himself. The sun was starting to set and many cars drove by.

Mingyu stepped aside onto the pavement and walked down the sidewalk. He looked around again and realised he was in Seoul. He briskly walked down the pavement, a bit more co incident than before, now knowing where he was. Down the road he came across one of those old phone booths he didn't really notice still existed. He should call Wonwoo and find out where the other was. He could alter his voice so they wouldn't recognise him.

Mingyu then realised he hadn't brought his phone with him to Earth and he had no change on him and he looked around helpless. He spotted a couple walking down the sidewalk together holding hands. "Hey!" Mingyu called out as he took a few steps toward them. The couple noticed him and smiled. Once they came closer, Mingyu asked them, "Do you have any spare change? I need to make a call."

"Oh, yes, I do," the man said as he detached himself from the women's grip and pulled out his wallet. He took a handful of coins out and handed them to Mingyu, "Here you go."

"Thank you so much," Mingyu said, feeling more grateful than ever.

The women squinted her eyes at Mingyu though as she studied his face. "You look like this one guy I saw on the news that died in a school shooting," she stated.

Mingyu immediately stiffened, words getting caught in his throat, "Uh....ya..People. say that a lot..." Mingyu said hesitantly.

The women shrugged and took her partner's arm, leading him away down the sidewalk. Mingyu felt a bit shaken up now. Five minutes and he had almost been recognized, nice going. Mingyu entered the phone booth and shoved a few coins into the machine and dialing Wonwoo's phone number. The phone rang several time, his heart jumping every time. It kept ringing till the he heard Wonwoo's voicemail, "Sorry I couldn't get to the phone in time, leave a message and ill get to you as soon as I can!" Just the sound of Wonwoo's cheerful voice made Mingyu's stomach feel like it was doing back flips and put a smile on his face...but Wonwoo hadn't answered.

Something was wrong....Wonwoo always had his phone on him... Mingyu shook his head, "No, he probably just didn't want to pick up a random phone number," he thought to himself, but it didn't help the uneasy feeling in his stomach.

Their college wasn't so far from where he was now, he could probably just go to their dorm now instead. So Mingyu walked down the sidewalk to the college.

After a long walk, he finally reached the campus. So many memories rushed to his head all at once. So many memories of his time with Wonwoo, that seemed to be the only good thing he could remember about this place, it was always and only about Wonwoo. Mingyu was able to walk to the dorms and into the building without being recognized by the other students.

And in the matter of minutes, Mingyu found himself in front of what used to Wonwoo's and his dorm. Why did all of a sudden did Mingyu feel so nervous. His hands became clammy and his mouth turned dry. He took a deep breathe. He could do this. He could finally see Wonwoo again and it'll all be worth it. Mingyu finally raised his fist to the door and knocked. 

He could hear footsteps shuffle behind the door before it was swung open. Mingyu expected to see his best friend's face, agape and full of shock when he saw Mingyu. What he didn't expect however was to find an unfamiliar face staring back at him. The boy had light brown hair and a confused expression on his face, "What do you want?" The boy asked he looked him up and down, sizing Mingyu up. Was this guy Wonwoo's new roommate?

Mingyu finally found his voice and asked the other, "Um, where's Wonwoo?" 

The other raised his eyebrow at him as he leaned against the door frame, "There's no Wonwoo here. I think you have the wrong dorm."

But Mingyu knew this was the correct dorm, this was HIS dorm. "Um, no. This is the correct dorm. Where is Wonwoo?" Mingyu insisted.

The other was tooken back by Mingyu's persistence and put his hands up before, showing that he was innocent, "I don't know man, no one named Wonwoo lives here. I think there may have been a guy named Wonwoo who lived here before me, but that's it."

Mingyu's eyes narrowed as he cursed under his breathe. Something was wrong. Wonwoo wouldn't just move. He knew Wonwoo, better than anyone did. Something was off. "Oh. Do you know where he is now?"

The boy shook his head, "Sorry man."

Something was very wrong. "Oh, well thanks anyways," Mingyu said before turning around and leaving the dorm. 

What was he going to do now? Wonwoo had disappeared and wouldn't pick up his call. Mingyu's worries only intensified as he walked away from the dorms and left the campus and found himself walking along the the road on the sidewalk again. Maybe he could call Wonwoo's mother. She would know where he was. Mingyu continued walking down the street till he came across another telephone booth.

Mingyu got in and picked a few extra coins from his pocket that the couple had given him and put in a few more coins into the machine and failed Wonwoo's mother's number. It took a few second before someone finally picked up.

"Hello?" a small voice answered. Mingyu immediately recognized Wonwoo's mother's voice. She sounded weak and tired, a lot more than when he had last saw her at least. 

"Hello, Mrs.Jeon!" Mingyu answered in a lower voice and different accent. "I was just wondering if you knew where Wonwoo was and if he's doing all right."

"Um, who is this?" she asked in a confused voice.

"Uh, I'm one of Wonwoo's college friends. I went to his dorm to see him, but he wasn't there and hasn't picked up any of my phone calls," Mingyu smoothly lied.

There was silence from the other side for a few second, Mingyu almost thought she had hung up. "Ah...well I guess you haven't heard, but Wonwoo is currently in SM Asylum right now due to...mental health issues...," Wonwoo's mother finally answered hesitantly.

In an instant Mingyu's heart most stopped. Why was Wonwoo in an asylum right now? What mental health issues did he have? What that happened since Mingyu had been gone? "Um, I'm sorry, why is he in SM Asylum?" Mingyu immediately questioned.

"That's a family matter and quiet frankly none of your concern," Mingyu heard her snap at him. 

"Oh, yes, sorry I didn't mean to be disrespectful," Mingyu immediately apologised. "Thank you for telling me that."

"Is that all?" Mingyu could tell by her voice that she was extremely tired and worn out.  
"Yes, that it, thank you," Mingyu said before hanging up the phone. A million questions raced through Mingyu's mind. Why did thing have to be so difficult? 

Mingyu sighed out loud. He couldn't just give up now, he's already gone this far. "Off to the asylum I go," Mingyu thought. He knew where the asylum was, it wasn't too far from where he is, so he began walking to his destination.  
  
~~~~~

Mingyu really hadn't thought this through. He was currently standing outside of the grey asylum that looked much like a prison, with no way to get in. Why did he think this was a good idea, Mingyu didn't know, but he knew he had to see Wonwoo just once more. "Oh the things I do for you, Wonwoo," Mingyu whispered. He looked down and checked his watch. It was 7:30pm, and hour and a half had already passed. 

Mingyu looked up when he heard footsteps approaching him. A man with dark brown hair and and a strong jaw line, wearing a security guard's uniform was walking towards him.   
Suddenly an idea came to Mingyu's mind. 

"Hey!" Mingyu said to the security guard approaching him. 

The guard raised an eyebrow, probably wondering what the Hell Mingyu was doing hanging around the front entrance of an asylum like he was waiting for him, "Hey..."

"You work here, right?" Mingyu asked the other.

The guard stopped in front of Mingyu, looking somewhat annoyed with his obvious question, "yeah...Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm on my way to work," he said, pushing past Mingyu.  
Mingyu frantically reached out a hand to the other, taking a hold of his elbow as he pulled the guard back to look at him, "Wait! Sir!"

The guard turned around and yanked his hand out of Mingyu's grip, taking a step back before saying, "What?!"

Mingyu gulped, the other's death glare scared him quite a bit, "Um...so I was wondering if I could possibly take over your shift for tonight, just this once."

The guard's glare quickly turned into confusion as he thought over what Mingyu had just said, "Why the Hell do you want to work my shift tonight?"

"Well, you see, I need to get in to see this one person that's in there...," Mingyu told the other, immediately realising how crazy and stupid that sounded.

The other raised his eyebrow, "You know you can just request to have an appointment with one of the patients in there."

"Well, I can do this tonight and I can't exactly let people know who I am..."

The guard narrowed his eyes, "What, are you like some crazy criminal trying to sneak into an asylum?"

Mingyu frantically shook his head, "No, no, no, no, no, I just really need to get in and see one person in there. Just for tonight. You won't have to pay me or anything, I just need to get in."

The other thought about Mingyu's offer for a few seconds before asking, "You don't want any payment for this?"

Mingyu shook his head no.

"And you're not some psycho trying to sneak in to like kill someone, right?"

Mingyu shook his head again.

The other sighed and shrugged as he said, "Fine, more free time for me." He then looked Mingyu up and down before pointing out, "You don't look like me in the slightest, the people who work there know my face.

"I already got that under control," Mingyu reassured the other, "I just need your uniform if that's ok."

The guard sighed and told him he'd be back after he'd change out of his uniform. Mingyu waited alone in front of the asylum, thinking over his plan inside his head. He couldn't tell Wonwoo he was alive anymore, not if he was going to be looking like a guard, that'll just make him go even more insane. "Why is he even in this place?" Mingyu thought to himself. He'd figure that out later. For now, just seeing him and making sure he was ok was enough.

The other came back a few minutes later in a plain t shirt and sweatpants and handed Mingyu the uniform, a flashlight, gun, and a key card, "My name's Kim Jonghyun, I'm 26 years old, and I've been working here for 6 months so far. You're job is to basically walk around the building and make sure all the patients are behaving. If any fight ensues separate all who are involved and lock them in their rooms. Use sedatives if they struggle. I work from eight pm to three am tonight," he informed Mingyu.

Mingyu nodded his head, "Got it."

"Don't fuck this up for me," Jonghyun warned the other as he turned around and walked away.  
Mingyu walked to a nearby gas station and entered the small, cramped, and stinky bathroom. He set the uniform on the toilet seat as he pulled out the potion vile from his pocket. He then plucked a stray hair he found of the uniform that he assumed and desperately hoped was Jonghyun's and dropped it into the vile. The liquid inside changed into a deeper colour and bubbled a little and missed down a bit. Mingyu took a deep breathe before he just said "fuck it" in his mind and poured the liquid into his mouth. 

He felt the room swirl around him as his head started to pound and his stomach started feeling bubbly. He closed his eyes and squatted down in the floor hoping the potion would work and the odd effects would hurry up and finish already. Once the dizziness subsided and his headache went away, Mingyu opened his eyes and stood up in front of the mirror.

Mingyu's hands immediately went up to his face, touching all over it, seeing it what he saw in the mirror was true. It worked. He looked exactly like Jonghyun, down the the smallest detail and had even shrunk in size. Mingyu quickly changed into the uniform and threw the empty vile away. Mingyu kept the bracelet Hyuna gave him on his wrist, along with the matching bracelet him a nd Wonwoo had.

Mingyu walked to the asylum gates and pushed them open and headed to the entrance of the building. Next to the double doors was a slot where Mingyu swiped Jonghyun's key card through and the door handle blinked green and unlocked. Mingyu took another deep breath (I, the author, feel like I say they take a deep breathe way too often, lol XD) And swung the door open. Inside all the walls were grey, along with the floors. In the lobby there were a few chairs to the side and a women was working at the front desk. She looked up to see Mingyu and smiled at him, "Hello again, Jonghyun."

Mingyu smiled at her in return and waved a bit before quickly leaving the lobby through the doors to the right. The doors had led to a hallway with yet again, dull, grey walls and dim lighting. Talk about creepy. 

Mingyu continued walking down the hallway, not quite sure where to go. "Just walk around, pretend you're just doing your job and supervising," Mingyu thought to himself. At the end of the hallway, he took another left to what looked like was the gym. There were a couple treadmills and weights out, but the equipment was unoccupied and no one was in the room.

Mingyu turned around and walked down the hallway again, this time taking a left and down another series of hallways. "God this place is a maze," Mingyu muttered under his breathe. A little while later came across a room that seemed like the cafeteria, but only a small group of women were talking at the tables and they seemed to be staff members. Eventually he turned into what seemed like an entertainment room. There were tables and chairs, couches, tv's, books, and various of child puzzles out for patients. A lot of people were spending there time in the room. Mingyu walked around the perimeter of the room, looking at the different people here.

Some were very muscular men with tattoos all over their body, while others were tiny and frail, seeming as though the wind could blow them over. There was a group of girls hanging out at one of the tables in the corner, there was about eight or so of them. There was also a group of young boys on the couches, watching the nature channel with one another, but seemed to be arguing about whether dogs had periods or not. 

"Yes, they do, Taeyong! I'm not an idiot!" He heard one yell.

"No, they don't, Mark! My family had a female dog when I was little and she never got a period!" 

"That's because they don't have them every month and you just never noticed because you were a child."

"Shut it, Yuta!"

Mingyu quickly turned his attention away from the boys, not wanting to see where that conversation was headed. He scanned the room once more and checking each and everyone's face in the room.

And then he saw him. At first his eyes skipped over, didn't pay him even a moment's second, he almost missed the other, but who could forget those dark, brown eyes? Eyes that sparkle in the night, looking up at the sky. Eyes that hold so much love and kindness and hope. 

He looked different than the last time he saw him. He was thinner, paler; there were bags underneath his eyes, he looked tired. But that sparkle in his eyes never left. He was sitting with about five other people, a girl with long, brown was sitting beside him, she looked familiar, but they were sitting too far away for Mingyu to identify her. Every time Mingyu saw him laugh with the other patients, his eyes lit up, he looked happy. Maybe not as happy as he did with Mingyu, but more happy than when he was with Mingyu's college party friends. He looked comfortable, at ease, like he blended in and belonged with these people. What all had changed since Mingyu left?

Mingyu stood in his corner of the room, staring at the other, watching his every movement. He was mesmerized with everything the other did, couldn't keep his eyes off the other. It had been so long since they saw one another. Or at least it felt like it. "I wonder if he ever thinks about me like I think about him. Wait, no, stop Mingyu, that's so cheesy," Mingyu thought and mentally facepalmed himself.

And so he stood there for the next three hours, staring at the other, watching him and his friends. Was it creepy, ya, but it was all Mingyu could to at the moment, all that his brain would let him. Around the three hour mark, the other finally noticed him when the girl next to him whispered something in his ear and he glanced over at him. Their eyes met for a split second and Mingyu quickly looked away. 

God, he shouldn't be doing this. This is so wrong and creepy, but what else could he do? He's so desperate just to see Wonwoo. Mingyu looked back at the other and continued staring till the other looked at him again. Throughout the next thirty minutes Wonwoo kept glancing back at him, noticing Mingyu's odd behavior for staying in one place for so long and staring at the other. Eventually his group of friends all got up and headed out of the room to their rooms, Mingyu supposed. 

Wonwoo stayed back though, remaining in his chair as he picked his fingernails. What was he doing? After a few minutes or so, Wonwoo finally got up and walked out of the room into the hallway. Mingyu waited a few seconds, giving him a bit of distance between them. Mingyu knew he was taking a stupid risk for following him, but he couldn't just let Wonwoo go, not like that at least, not after not even talking once. Mingyu checked the clock; he had three hours left.  
Mingyu followed Wonwoo down the hallway, noticing how Wonwoo was carefully listening for Mingyu's footsteps. Was he being creepy, yah, but what can you do? Wonwoo then turned a corner and Mingyu noticed his footsteps cease. 

Mingyu narrowed his eyes and turned the corner as well, but as soon as he did, he felt the other's hand wrap around his wrist and pull him to the side aggressively. The two immediately locked eyes. Mingyu froze in place, too scared to move, that Wonwoo would slip out of his grasp again. He didn't dare breathe out a breath.

"Why are you following me?" the other said in that voice Mingyu had missed so dearly. The deep, beautiful voice he missed that'd sing him to sleep sometimes. Mingyu nearly melted right then and there just by hearing Wonwoo's voice. 

But he couldn't answer Wonwoo. If he told him who he really was, it could hurt Wonwoo. He was already in asylum for some reason, telling Wonwoo he wasn't dead could mess with Wonwoo's mind, make him go even more crazy, it wasn't worth the risk. 

Instead Mingyu's handed lifted in the air and went up to touch the blooming bruise on Wonwoo's jaw. Wonwoo flinched back a little, but let Mingyu take his chin gently and tilt it up to get a better look at the bruise. Mingyu narrowed his eyes, "How did he manage to get this huge thing?" Mingyu thought to himself before he then took Wonwoo's elbow and led him down the hallway to what seemed like their room hallway. "Which room?" Mingyu asked Wonwoo, not making eye contact with the other as he looked straight ahead.

"That one," Wonwoo answered quietly, pointing to the door that they were approaching. Mingyu led Wonwoo into the room, shutting the door behind them. The room was small, only able to fit a bed, a small table with space to store clothing, and a sink. Mingyu led Wonwoo to the bed and went over to the sink, picking up a wash cloth and rinsing it with cold water before returning to Wonwoo.

He sat down next to Wonwoo on the bed and gently pressed the wet wash cloth till the bruise, dabbling it a bit, focusing anywhere other than Wonwoo's piercing eyes.

Wonwoo hadn't spoke throughout the entire interaction, instead he stared at Mingyu's new face, studying every little detail. Even though it would've seemed awkward for any other people, Mingyu felt comfortable. Sitting so close to Wonwoo, taking care of the other. Just being in his presence made Mingyu happier than he had been in the past few weeks. But he was also afraid. That he'd suddenly wake up from a dream and be back in his dorm at Pledis. That Wonwoo would slip away from him again, that if Mingyu touched the other, he simply disappear. After a few more minutes of silence, Wonwoo finally spoke, "You didn't answer my question."

Mingyu continued to dab the bruise with the washcloth lightly, refusing to meet Wonwoo's gaze as he responded, "Does it matter?"

"Yes," Wonwoo answered in a soft, quiet voice, almost whispering.

"I was worried about you." That was true in a way. He was worried about Wonwoo, Wonwoo was always on his mind, he couldn't get the other out no matter what. The thought of him was always in the back of his head, never letting Mingyu couldn't forget.

Wonwoo gently pulled Mingyu's hand down, away from his face, "I'm fine. I can take care of myself, I don't need security guards following me around and protecting me."

"I know," Mingyu said before he lifted the washcloth back up to Wonwoo's jaw again. Wonwoo closed his mouth and sat in silence again as Mingyu took care of the older. "What if I just wanted a friend here?" Mingyu asked quietly, breaking the silence again.

Wonwoo scoffed a little before telling the other, "I wouldn't exactly be the best choice for that position."

Mingyu's hand fell, in his lap, still clutching the washcloth. He looked into Wonwoo's deep, brown eyes as he told him, "You're the only choice I want."

Mingyu heard Wonwoo suck in a breathe at Mingyu's words and blush forming on his cheeks. He looked so cute; Mingyu missed that look of shy, embarrassment. He never could take a compliment. Mingyu smiled a little at the other before standing up and walking to the door.

He turned around and told the other, "You should get some sleep." Wonwoo nodded and crawled into his covers. As Mingyu was about to flip the light off, he first asked the other, "Friends now?"

Wonwoo gave him a small smile. To anyone else it wouldn't be so significant, but that smile meant the world to Mingyu. Finally seeing that smile after being apart for what felt was so long. Mingyu knew that he hadn't seen Wonwoo that long ago, but it felt like it. "Friends."

Mingyu flipped the switch and the dim light went out, and he left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Mingyu stood in the hallway with a shy smile on his face. He finally saw Wonwoo again. Mingyu felt like he was soaring through the sky. Finally. He didn't know all the answers to why Wonwoo was in an asylum and what all had happened since Mingyu had died, but this was a start, all of that was for next time, if there would be a next time.

Mingyu checked his watch. He had two more hours to kill, so he patrolled around the facility for a while before his shirt was finally done. He said good bye to the front office lady as he left and quickly changed out of his clothes at the same gas station and walked to Jonghyun's house, who only like a block away from the asylum. 

Mingyu gently set the folded uniform on the front door, leaving it there for Jonghyun to find it in the morning. He then lifted his wrist that had his bracelets on that Hyuna had provided him and pressed the button on the side of it and his surroundings swirled around him once more. He was then transported in the middle of Hyuna's room.

Hyuna was standing in front of him, as if she was expecting him. "So, how was it?" She asked him immediately. 

Mingyu's smile on his face answered her question and Hyuna then smiled at him as she tilted her head to the side a little, "Good, I'm glad it went well."

"Um...what if I wanted to go back... again?" Mingyu asked her hesitantly.

Hyuna's smile immediately fell as she thought about what deal she could make with the younger boy. An idea popped into her head. "You bring me an item I require each week and I'll let you return to Earth each day for that week, sound good?" Hyuna asked Mingyu.

Mingyu's face lit up. Just the thought of seeing Wonwoo once a week seemed almost impossible, but for everyday?! "Yes, of course!" 

"Good. I'll text you what next item I need. Meet me here each night, same time as last."

"Ok, thank you so much!" Mingyu said before rushing out the door, worried one of his guild members would notice he was still gone at this hour. 

Once Mingyu was gone, Hui stepped into the room. "We have him hooked," he noted.

"This will be much easier than I anticipated," Hyuna said as she gave the other a smile and walking over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss.

"It's smooth sailing from now on," Hui said to her in between their kisses as he wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her closer to him.

"It is indeed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MEANIE REUNION!! Lolll, omg, sorry this reunion isn't what you guys expected, but I gotta keep you on your toes XD Sorry about the college dorm room scene, I honestly have no idea how college is like and how it works since in just started high school last week, which SORRY I UPDATED SO LATE!! I've been way to tired to write with sports and school, so updates may be a slower from now on. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please comment your opinions and give a kudos if you like this story! <3 (I didn't revise or re-read this chapter, so sorry if there are any mistakes.)


	11. Visiting Hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu gets to know Wonwoo all over again, just a bunch of filler and a little bit of meanie moments tbh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I want to address the Jonghyun issue. I was never really a fan of Shinee until this year when I listened to their 1 of 1 album. Jonghyun was my bias, he just stuck out and was amazing and I'm honestly just disappointed that he was led to this point, that he felt like the only escape was death. I've been suicidal before, I still kinda am, but let me tell you, SUICIDE IS NEVER THE ANSWER. You are loved and wanted. If anyone ever needs to talk, my Instagram is Kee_amino and you can dm me anytime <3

"No, pancakes are better than waffles, fuck you, you're going to Hell."

Beside Mingyu, Jackson rolled his eyes, "Whoa there, calm down, Markiepooh. You don't have to be so rude."

Mark snorted as he crossed his arms, "Freedom of speech, bitch."

"Mark, this isn't America, you can't keep saying that," Jaebum sighed as he shoveled the remainder of his lunch food into his mouth.

"Fuck you, we're not on speaking terms," Mark snarled as he glared at the other, turning his body so he wasn't facing him.

Jaebum raised an eyebrow, "How long are you going to keep this up?"

"Till you fucking fix yourself."

"Wow, that was harsh," Jooheon chimed in.

"Yeah, Kihyun would disapprove," Hoseok added.

Mark glared at Hoseok, "I don't need your fucking boyfriend's approval."

Seungcheol raised an eyebrow as he sipped the rest of his drink, "Trouble in paradise, I see."

"Fuck off," Jaebum and Mark said in unison, which made the rest of the table burst into laughter.

To the left if him, Jisoo nudged his side asking him, "Hey, I need to go get my textbook, I left it in the Hospital during my shift last night, can you come with me to get it now?"

Mingyu smiled at the other and said yes and the two of them left the group of people at the lunch table and walked down the hallways.

"What was that about?" Mingyu asked Jisoo, referring to the hostility between his two friends at lunch, as they walked down the hallway to the Hospital.

"Mark's mad at Jaebum for hurting Youngjae, Jaebum still is putting up that stupid 'I don't care, I'm too cool for this' act, and poor Youngjae still doesn't have any answers yet," Jisoo said as he shrugged. "Jackson's been having to watch over Mark 24/7 so he doesn't beat the living Hell out of Jaebum or Jinyoung."

"Intense."

Jisoo shrugged again.

The two finally arrived at the Hospital, "I'll go find Moonbyul, she has my textbook. You can stay here or walk around a bit till I get back," Jisoo said Mingyu before he walked off.

Mingyu looked around the building, studying his surroundings. The room was very large with a high ceiling, rows of medical beds continued in a line along the walls from each side. There were large windows that resembled church stained glass that let sunlight shine through. Mingyu was so distracted as he examined the room, that he didn't hear the sound of loud heels clicking against the stone hard floors.

"Excuse me, Sir, can I help you with anything?"

Mingyu turned around to find a doctor standing in front of him. She had blue and silver hair, and a beautiful, slim body. She raised an eyebrow expectantly at him as she saw Mingyu's eyes look her up and down and stopping at her revealing shirt underneath her white coat that showed a bit too much cleavage to be safe for work.

"Oh- uh, hi. No, I'm sorry, I just came here with a friend to get something. I'm just waiting here," Mingyu stammered as he finally looked her in the eye.

The woman chuckled as she looked Mingyu up and down, smirking. "The name's Hwasa, if you ever want check in and say hi."

Mingyu smiled at her and bowed a little, "Mingyu."

Hwasa....Hwasa...that name sounded familiar. Something clicked in Mingyu's brain in an instant. "Wait a second, are you the fortune teller Hwasa?" Mingyu questioned.

Hwasa smirked again as she flipped her hair back behind her shoulder, "I'm the only Hwasa here, so yeah."

"Oh, that's great."

"Yeah...," the doctor said, "I guess I'll see you around some other time," and then started to walk off.

Mingyu panicked for a second and reached out and grabbed the other's wrist, stopping her from leaving, "Wait! I actually had a question first."

Hwasa turned around and raised and eyebrow as she looked from Mingyu to his hand on her wrist.

Mingyu immediately dropped her wrist and backed up a little, blushing profusely, before he continued. "So when I first came here, everyone was saying that you had predicted that I would come here and be this savior. I was just wondering what that was about."

"Oh, you're that kid. Listen, I while back I had this dream about this sort of evil darkness taking over the world. And then I predicted that there would be a savior that would be able to rescue us from that evil," Hwasa explained, "I predicted that the savior's last name would be Kim, so every time someone new here named Kim arrives, people assume that they're the savior, which seems to happen far more frequently than it should."

"Oh, ok," Mingyu said as he processed this new information.

"But don't worry about it kid, it's not you," Hwasa said as she turned around again and walked off.

"How do you know that?" Mingyu called after her.

"Because I just do," she called back over her shoulder and then exited the room, leaving Mingyu bewildered.

~~~~~

Once again Mingyu snuck into Hyuna's dorm late at night, hoping that none of his guild members would realize his absence. Like the night before Hyuna handed him the shape shifting potion and gave him the bracelet he would use to signal her. He slipped off the bracelet he shared with Wonwoo and put in the new one, and he was portaled back to Earth.

This time he had Hyuna portal him in front if the entrance of the asylum and Mingyu waited at the gate for the very same guard that he had encountered the prior night.

"You again?" the brown haired guard asked with a raised eyebrow as he slowly walked up to Mingyu.

Mingyu let out a short, breathy laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "Yeah..."

"What now?" Jonghyun asked as he raised an expectant eyebrow.

"Well, I was hoping we could do what we did yesterday..." Mingyu said softly as he gave the other a shy smile.

Jonghyun crossed his arms. Even though Mingyu was almost a head taller than the other, he still managed to obtain a threatening and powerful presence. "Why can't you just go ask for a job there if you're so desperate to keep working my shifts? It's not like you'll be put on a waiting list to be hired."

Mingyu sighed; he really didn't want to have to explain this to him. "All I can say is that people can't know I'm alive right now..."

"What do you mean?" the other asked as apprehension spread across his face. "What? Is there someone after you?"

Mingyu shrugged, "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Jonghyun took a couple steps back before he told Mingyu, "Listen, I don't want to get caught up in any trouble-"

"And you won't have to," Mingyu interrupted. "You won't get dragged into anything, I swear. I just really need your help right now."

Jonghyun stared at him for a few moments, thinking over the offer. "Fine, whatever. As long as you're not demanding payment and you don't screw things up for me," he finally agreed.

"Yes! Thanks you!" Mingyu was so happy he could kiss the man right then, but refrained from doing so.

"How long are you wanting to keep this up? Jonghyun asked as the two made their way to the gas station further down the street."

"I'm not sure... I'm thinking like everyday...? If that's ok with you," Mingyu answered hesitantly.

"Fine by me," Jonghyun said indifferently. "It just hit me, I don't even know your name..." he suddenly said aloud.

"Hmmm... I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say..." Mingyu pondered. "So, just call me Mr.Beanie," Mingyu snickered as he remembered the nickname he had given Wonwoo in high school.

Jonghyun snorted. "Ok then, Mr.Beanie."

~~~~~

"Good afternoon!" the woman at the front desk said to Mingyu as he walked through the doors once again. Mingyu smiled and waved at the woman in return and continued walking forward.  
Mingyu made his way down the winding halls and to Wonwoo's room. Solely traveling by memory, he made a few wrong turns, but finally reached Wonwoo's door at last. Being his polite self and all, Mingyu softly knocked on the door. He heard a soft voice answer from behind the door, "Come in."

Mingyu pushed the door open to find Wonwoo sitting on his bed barefoot, legs crossed while reading a book. Wonwoo looks up from his book to take a quick glance at Mingyu and then continues reading his book as he says, "Oh, it's you."

Mingyu raises an eyebrow as he crosses his arms and leans against the door frame. "Disappointed?"

Without missing a beat, Wonwoo replies, "No, just slightly concerned that you keep following me," never looking up from his book.

"Wow, and here I thought we were friends," Mingyu sighs as he walks towards Wonwoo and plops on the bed in front of him.

A small, shy smile flashes across Wonwoo's face as he lightly closes his book and sets it aside. "Just because you say we're friends, doesn't make us friends."

Mingyu tilts his head slightly as he says, "Then what can I do to make us friends?"

Wonwoo rests his chin on his closed hand as he pretends to ponder. "Well for starters, I don't even know your name."

Mingyu repositioned himself on the bed before answering, "Kim Jonghyun at your service."

"Jeon Wonwoo, although you probably already know that since you've been stalking me."

"I have not been stalking you!" Mingyu protests.

"Then what do you call following and watching someone around for hours in secret?" Wonwoo asked as he raised an eyebrow and folded his arms.

Mingyu shrugged, saying, "Um, admiration from afar?"

"Ohhh, so you admire me?"

Mingyu rolled his eyes as he gently punched Wonwoo's arm. "That's not what I meant."

"Mhm...," Wonwoo said as he leaned in closer to Mingyu's face.

"Uhuh," Mingyu responded, leaning in as well. There faces were mere inches apart, and Mingyu could feel Wonwoo's breath against his face. He could see every small detail on Wonwoo's face and noticed Wonwoo's eyes dart down at his lips before quickly returning back up to his eyes.

Wonwoo then gently pushes Mingyu away from him as he leans back himself before clearing his throat and asking, "Ok, well what's your favourite food?"

"Meat for sure, you?"

"Um, I love all food, but maybe hamburgers? Favourite colour?"

"Red."

"Mines blue. Favourite animal?"

And so Mingyu and Wonwoo continued the question game for hours into the night. Mingyu had to lie quite a few time so he wasn't so suspicious, but it was pure bliss getting to talk with Wonwoo again after so long...

~~~~~

 

Wonwoo was in the same position as when his newly found friend, Jonghyun, had found him last night: Barefoot with legs crossed, sitting on top of his bed, reading, when he heard a soft knock on his metal door. "Come in," he answered. The door creaked open and a figure stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him. Wonwoo looked up from his book and said, "Ah, it's you again."

"Miss me?" Jonghyun teased as he jumped onto the other's bed.

"Not in the slightest," Wonwoo said matter of factly. "It's quite nice not having a loud, clumsy idiot distracting me from my book."

"You know you love me," Jonghyun said as a smirk crept upon his face.

Wonwoo's eyes narrowed as he noticed Jonghyun's smirk. It looked so... familiar. It was unsettling how similar Jonghyun's face was to.... "No stop it, your mind is just playing with your right now. Maybe I am going insane here...," Wonwoo thought to himself. Wonwoo shook his head as he said, "Whatever."

Jonghyun's smirk turned into a playful smile as he asked the other, "So what's the next step to becoming friends?"

"Hmmmm... well now that we know the basics about each other, we can further learn more about one another through games," Wonwoo suggested.

"Ok, what do you want to do then?"

Wonwoo thought for a few seconds before answering, "How about 'Would You Rather?'"

"Sure! You ask first," Jonghyun said excitedly.

"Ok, hmmm... Would you rather only be able to eat your favourite food for the rest of your life or you can eat anything else but your favourite food for the rest of your life?"

Jonghyun rested his chin on his closed fist as he thought for a few moments before answering, "I would rather be able to eat everything except my favourite food because if I age my favourite food forever, I would just get sick of it."

"Yeah I get that, I guess I would choose the same."

"Ok, well would you rather live with the love of your life but have no money or be alone, but be super rich?"

"Hmm, well... I rather be happy than rich, so I rather be poor with the love if my life." As Wonwoo said this, the image of the boy that once made him the happiest flashed in his head for a split second. Wonwoo shook his head again, as if he was trying to will all his memories away. Was he not capable of not thinking of Mingyu for one goddamn day? Wonwoo internally sighs and tries to pay attention to what Jonghyun was saying, finally paying attention in the middle of his sentence.

"-make you greedy and obsessed and then you'd just be miserable."

"I'm sorry, What did you just say?" Wonwoo asked, slightly embarrassed that he had blanked out.

"Oh yeah, I was just saying that money can corrupt you and what not and doesn't guarantee happiness, so I agree with you," Jonghyun repeated, looking slightly hurt that Wonwoo hands been listening; he looked like a kicked puppy. Though Wonwoo felt bad, he couldn't deny that Jonghyun looked awfully cute at that moment... Wonwoo would almost go as far as to say that that he looked a lot like... "God fucking dammit, Wonwoo!" Wonwoo thought as he scolded himself mentally. Wonwoo really needed to get forget him if he ever wanted to move on and get out of this forsaken place...

~~~~~

The rest if the week the two had learned more about one another. Though Mingyu had lied quite a few times and he already knew these useless facts about Wonwoo, he couldn't help but enjoy meeting Wonwoo for the second time, it's not everyday you get to start over. The next week Mingyu visited Wonwoo, he was determined to get answers this time.

The two were both sitting on Wonwoo's bed again and had just finished a discussion about how Venus Fly traps are both animals and plants, leaving the two in a momentary, yet comfortable silence.

"Hey, Wonwoo?" Mingyu asks as he turned his head to face the other.

"Yes?" Wonwoo hums in response, eyes still closed as he laid back against his pillow, hands folded behind his head.

Mingyu nervously chewed his bottom lip, not sure if he even wanted to know the answers to his questions. "Why are you in here?"

Wonwoo's eyes shot open, staring at the ceiling, but refusing to look back at him. Mingyu could see him stiffen and his jaw clench at the question. What felt like hours, but were only mere seconds passed by as Mingyu waited for Wonwoo's response.

"Don't you have work to do?"

Wonwoo's question caught Mingyu off guard. "What?"

"I think you should go," Wonwoo said, voice void of any emotion.

"What? Why?" Mingyu asked, taken back at the other's extreme mood swing.

"We're not friends, I don't have answer to you!" Wonwoo yelled, finally looking at him as he lurched forward, sitting upwards. Wonwoo began to tremble, his eyes started to water and he was breathing hard.

Mingyu's eyes widened at the sudden out outburst. He reaches out a hand towards his friend, "Wonwoo-"

"Get out of my room!"

Mingyu flinched back. What is going on with him? Mingyu slowly backed off the he'd and turned around to leave the room. He reached the door and rested a hand on the door knob, waiting for Wonwoo's response, hoping for him to tell him to stay.

"Leave."

The coldness in Wonwoo's voice made Mingyu shiver as he finally opened the door and left his troubled friend behind him.

~~~~~

"Breath, Wonwoo, Breath," Wonwoo repeated in his head. He was still on his bed, arms wrapped around him as he tried desperately to keep himself from falling apart. He was shaking violently, he felt so cold, his fingertips had turned numb, and his fingernails were digging into his arms. "You're ok... you're ok..." Wonwoo's breathe caught in his throat. He felt like he was drowning. Everything sounded like he was underwater. He had felt this way before. He knew he had, he couldn't remember when, yet he could imagine the feeling and memory so vividly at the same time. He could remember the slippery feel of the blood, how everything was red, how cold he had felt, how his heart had shattered. In an instant, it was almost like he was back there. He felt the weight of the body in his arms. His face pressed into the crook of a neck. Wonwoo pulled back to look at the body, but once he did, he couldn't figure out the boy's face. It was blurry, almost edited out like they did in television shows. Wonwoo reached to cup the boy's face. His middle finger barely brushed against the boy's face when Wonwoo was pulled from the vision. Wonwoo felt his face burning, cheeks wet with tears, and eyes straining. He lifted his head a little, looking around the room, sighing in relief knowing he had returned to his gray walls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so soooooooo sorry that it took me so long to update T.T I've just been so busy with school, sports, and life and stuff that I didn't have time to work on this or I was just too exhausted. I'll try to work in it more throughout school and weekends if I can! Thank you so much to you all who have stuck with me through this. I'm sorry this chapter's so short, next chapter will be a bit more eventful! Happy New Years! <3


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